Ice pushing hairdresser walks free after judge finds control by boyfriend

A Queensland hairdresser has narrowly avoided jail, walking free from court after she admitted supplying the drug ice and collecting hefty drug debts while under the control of her boyfriend.

Bridgette Louise Taylor outside Brisbane Supreme Court. Picture: Liam Kidston

A Queensland hairdresser has narrowly avoided jail, walking free from court after she admitted supplying the drug ice and collecting hefty drug debts while under the control of her boyfriend.

Bridgette Louise Taylor, 29, from Maroochydore was in Brisbane Supreme Court on Wednesday before Justice Peter Davis where he told her he would take the “very rare” and “unusual” course of allowing her to avoid prison.

Justice Davis said that very serious crimes of supplying ice and collecting drug debts would normally almost inevitably see her jailed, he would instead suspend her jail sentence and force her to perform 240 hours’ community service because she had been manipulated by her then boyfriend Samuel Jones.

Taylor, a New Zealand citizen, who owns the Base Hair Studio on Gympie Rd at Chermside in Brisbane’s north, would almost certainly be deported there if convicted, Justice Davis noted.

Bridgette Louise Taylor (Facebook image)

Prosecutor Michael Gawrych told the court that Taylor sold a total of 230g ice on several occasions in June 2019, and she also collected drug debts for Jones while Jones was in prison on remand on drugs charges.

She admitted collecting debts totalling about $20,000 and taking possession of a white Toyota HiLux ute as satisfaction of a drug debt.

Authorities were listening in to phone calls between Taylor and Jones while he was in custody accused of trafficking in the drug ice.

Taylor pleaded guilty to seven charges, with the prosecution dropping three other charges.

The charges included three counts of supply, as well as others of receiving property obtained from trafficking in drugs.

In sentencing Taylor, Justice Davis said that Jones’s conduct toward her constituted domestic violence.

“Jones was an emotionally abusive partner and dominated and manipulated you, he controlled your finances and large parts of your personal life,” Justice Davis said.

“Johns has manipulated you, under threats, and coerced you to commit offences, by any definition that is domestic violence and in this day and age, consideration should be had to the protection of persons who are the subject of domestic violence.

“Domestic violence in this case, explains how you became involved in this very serious offending.”

He sentenced to Taylor to five years’ jail, wholly suspended, for the most serious charge of supplying 130g of ice in one deal.

He also sentenced her to 240 hours’ community service for three of the other charges.

“That is an unusual course for offending of this nature. It is very rare for the offending of this objective seriousness, a person in your position to get the benefit of a community based order do you understand that?” he asked her.

Justice Davis said that he accepted Taylor was remorseful for her crimes and she had broken up with Jones and was now planning to marry her new boyfriend early next year.

Taylor was ordered to report to probation and parole authorities in Maroochydore by Thursday afternoon to begin her community service.

Justice Davis recorded a conviction on the seven charges.