Carly Younger: Gold Coast mum jailed for massive ice haul

A South East Queensland mum and disability support worker’s sad story of rehabilitation and relapse has continued following her latest slip, which has resulted in her being put behind bars.

A Gold Coast mum who works in the disability support sector has been jailed for possessing a commercial quantity of methamphetamine, the latest chapter in her sad story of rehabilitation and relapse back into her old ways.

Burleigh Heads mother-of-two Carly Marie Robyn Younger, 39, a disability support worker, pleaded guilty in Brisbane Supreme Court on Monday to aggravated possession of a Schedule 1 drug and a smoking utensil.

The court heard Younger was busted in a Tallebudgera Valley unit on September 28, 2019.

Inside her red handbag, police discovered a metal cylinder which contained about 63g pure methamphetamine and a glass smoking pipe.

She was charged on October 16, 2019 after attending a police station for an interview.

It was accepted by the Crown the drugs in Younger’s possession did not belong to her, but that she was aware they were for a commercial purpose and that she expected to receive some of them for her troubles.

Burleigh Heads mum Carly Marie Robyn Younger, 39. Picture: Facebook

The court heard this is Younger’s third appearance before the higher courts.

In October 2012, she was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for an operational period of five years, and placed on two years’ probation for supplying a Schedule 1 drug on six occasions and other associated drug offences.

This suspended sentence was extended in July 2017, after she pleaded guilty in Brisbane Supreme Court to aggravated possession of a Schedule 1 drug.

There, she was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for an operational period of three years, and placed on another two years’ probation.

The current offending breached that suspended sentence.

The court heard she had previously been afforded chances to rehabilitate herself in the community due to the “tenacity” with which she had “picked herself up” post-relapse.

Defence counsel Bernard Reilly told the court his client’s offending adhered to a “pattern”, wherein a “confluence of serious circumstances in her private life” would lead to a “tendency to relapse into drug use”.

“Her whole criminal history reflects that,” Mr Reilly said.

The court heard Younger’s two previous significant periods of offending, in 2009–10 and again in 2016, were precipitated by domestically violent relationships.

The same was true of the current offending, Mr Reilly said.

He further noted she had a prejudicial upbringing marred by an early introduction to drugs and alcohol.

Going into today’s sentence, the court heard, Younger’s main concern was the fate of her two young children, who would have to cope with her mother’s incarceration.

Justice Kerri Mellifont QC sentenced Younger to three years’ imprisonment, with court-ordered release on parole on January 31 next year, after she would have served three months of her sentence.

Justice Mellifont told Younger she had “unresolved trauma” in her life which she must deal with.

She was also placed on three years’ probation.