Former social worker turned drug trafficker Lauren Maddigan gets sentenced

A social worker who said she was forced illicit drugs in her sleep, forming an addiction which eventually led to her becoming a drug trafficker, has been sentenced

A SOCIAL worker who said she was forced illicit drugs in her sleep, forming an addiction which eventually led to her becoming a drug trafficker, has been sentenced

Lauren Linda Maddigan, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking methylamphetamine between July 3 and September 1, 2020, as well as one count of possessing methylamphetamine, cannabis and diazepam.

On Tuesday, Cairns District Court heard she was forcibly injected with methamphetamine by her former partner. The case was adjourned until Wednesday to give Justice Jim Henry time to consider the sentence.

Methamphetamine pure crystals being heated in a glass pipe.

In sentencing her to three years imprisonment, Justice Henry said Maddigan was not experiencing domestic violence at the time of her drug trafficking.

“The offending for which you are called to be sentenced did not in fact occur when you were with (your former partner), indeed you finally broke free in the early part of 2020 in which you met your co-offender,” Justice Henry said.

But he did acknowledge how she began her drug addiction.

“The appalling treatment you endured would occasion sympathy in the mind of any right thinking person but I do not lose sight of the reality that you did not in fact commit the offending during that era, rather you committed subsequently,” he said.

“The cause or connection with that earlier era and your mistreatment and the offending for which you fall to be sentenced is effectively an indirect one in the sense that apart for effectively causing infliction or habit upon you, you would not have gotten in that drug use.”

But Justice Henry said it was clear she was trying to clean herself up, mentioning a character reference tendered by Maddigan’s barrister Patrick Wilson, Justice Henry acknowledged her progress.

Maddigan has already spent 97 days in pre-sentence custody. Justice Henry sentenced Maddigan to three years imprisonment with a parole date of August 24, 2022.

Originally published as Former social worker turned drug trafficker Lauren Maddigan gets sentenced