Fiona Louise King pleads guilty to possession of dangerous drugs

A Bundaberg mother has a prison sentence hanging over her head after she was busted with meth and must curb her drug use to avoid serving time.

Fiona Louise King pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing dangerous drugs.

A Bundaberg mother has a prison sentence hanging over her head after police found several grams of pure methamphetamines in her home.

have a 2 and a half year prison sentence hanging over her head if she does not curb her drug use after police found several grams of pure methamphetamines in her home.

Fiona Louise King pleaded guilty to one count of possessing dangerous drugs exceeding two grams and one count of possessing dangerous drugs.

The 50-year-old appeared in the Bundaberg Supreme Court today, April 29, with what Justice Graeme Crow called a “deeply troubling” criminal history.

The court heard King had a decades-long issue with drugs, stemming from 15 years old when she left her “happy childhood home” to move in with her then partner, who was involved with drugs.

From then, the mother of four developed an addiction that would result in several court appearances during which she was told the courts would “eventually run out of sympathy”.

Despite previous attempts to get clean, the court heard a search warrant on King’s home in August 2022 revealed four clip seal bags of drugs, three of which were found in a safe, the other in her handbag.

According to the police, one of the bags contained 3.45g of pure methamphetamines, with the other bags containing pills and liquid methadone which she claimed belong to other people.

They were claims not accepted by the prosecution.

Barrister Peter O’Connor appeared for King and told the court she “recognises she has failed her own children” through her drug abuse but had made positive strides to reconnect with her several grandchildren.

Fiona Louise King pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing dangerous drugs.

He said for the first time in her life King had found stability in her home, a home which would be put at risk if she were to be given a term of actual imprisonment.

Mr O’Connor told the court of several character references, which he said spoke highly of King.

However, the statements which were questioned by Justice Crow.

“I’m troubled by these references, I see them all the time from family speaking of people who are convicted drug traffickers saying how wonderful and honest they are,” he said.

“I just find it really hard to accept … I find it hard to place too much weight on such glowing references.”

Despite King’s criminal history, which was of “great concern” to the supreme court justice, he accepted her efforts towards rehabilitation and a recent role as a carer she had undertaken for a friend battling cancer, a job she was not paid for.

King was sentenced to a two-and-half-year prison sentence for the first possession charge, and convicted and not further punished on the lesser possession charge, with immediate parole.

However, Justice Crow was quick to caution King against further drug abuse or possession and said if she tested positive for drugs she could be thrown in jail at the “stroke of a pen” for the remainder of her sentence.