Tayah Crowther: Umina hairdresser smuggled drugs into music festival
A teenager has been sentenced in court after she hid a condom packed with drugs inside herself before attempting to get the illegal substances into a music festival.
Central Coast
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A young woman who escaped a violent, abusive childhood has avoided a conviction after she “took a punt” and smuggled drugs into a festival.
Tayah Crowther faced Gosford Local Court on Tuesday where she pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing a prohibited drug.
The court heard the 19-year-old grew up with an alcoholic father who re-partnered with a bipolar woman who assaulted her twice when she was 12.
Her solicitor Denise McCarthy said at the time Crowther considered life on the streets was better than her current home life before eventually going to live with her grandmother at Umina Beach.
She said Crowther had gone on to become a senior hair stylist and bought a car which she was paying off.
An agreed set of police facts stated about 1.30pm on January 1, Drug Dog `Ree’ made an indication of a prohibited drug in the airspace around Crowther.
Police asked the accused why the drug dog may have made an indication in her direction to which she said “I’ve got cocaine”.
“Police further questioned the accused and determined that the accused had secreted the drugs internally in her vagina,” the facts read.
She was taken to a designated search area and inside a private tent.
“At this time the accused has reached into her underwear and removed a condom tied in a knot containing three small clear resealable bags, two containing white powder and the other containing a light brown powder,” the facts read.
Police questioned her and she said the two white bags were cocaine but the brown one was ketamine, which she said belonged to her friend.
She told police “she may have grabbed the wrong condom when her and her friend both placed their drugs into condoms before the festival”.
“The accused was polite and cooperative with police at all times through the whole interaction,” the facts read.
Ms McCarthy said her client was remorseful and that it “has been an epiphany” for Crowther and her attitude towards drugs.
However Magistrate Alan Railton reprimanded the young woman who “knew this was illegal” but “took a punt” anyway.
He said there had been so much publicity about taking drugs to festivals, sniffer dogs and “intrusive searches”.
Despite the dressing down, Mr Railton did not record a conviction and instead put her on a community service order to be of good behaviour for 12 months.