Townsville District Court: Katie Rose Owens sentenced for attempting to supply drugs in court

A woman who attempted to supply drugs to someone who sat in the dock in Townsville court was said to have asked for a different kind of repayment.

Townsville District Court: Katie Rose Owens sentenced for attempting to supply drugs in court. Picture: Facebook

A woman told her boyfriend who was behind bars that he owed her an ‘orgasm’ for her attempt at supplying drugs to other prisoners.

Katie Rose Owens appeared in Townsville District Court on Monday morning after a corrective services officer caught her trying to deliver a package that contained drugs to a man who was on trial.

It is not suggested the man who was on trial has been charged with the subject offending.

Legal officer Oliver Cole told the court that in 2023 the 29-year-old’s boyfriend was an inmate at Townsville Correctional Centre where he asked the woman during a phone call for a “massive favour”.

He told the woman she would need to support another prisoner during a trial in Townsville District Court where she attended after telling her boyfriend “I got it all in the process, it’s a bit risky ay”, Mr Cole told the court.

The defendant in the trial was transferred from a watch house holding cell to the dock in the courtroom and Owens was seen speaking with him before bending over, which Mr Cole said appeared as if she had been rummaging through her handbag.

“One of the officers noticed a small white parcel on the ground near the defendant,” Mr Cole said.

“The officer told (Owens) to move away from (the defendant) and he retrieved the white parcel.”

In it was 201 strips of Buprenorphine (also known as Suboxone and subbies), 1g of marijuana and a small amount of tobacco, the court was told.

Following the package drop fail and prior to the woman being charged she was asked by her boyfriend once again to supply Suboxone strips to another person, the crown said.

He told the court when police searched her Pimlico property they found 190 Suboxone strips in cling wrap as well as scales, an electric grinder, a tick book and a glass and water pipe.

Mr Cole said the woman was not driven by financial gain.

“Prior to her carrying out the offences, (her boyfriend) told her she would be paid $100 an hour for three hours of work,” the officer said.

“She said ‘you owe me an orgasm and a half for this’.

“That’s to say in the prosecution’s submission she did not have a commercial purpose.”

Owens’ boyfriend was dealt with earlier this year for multiple drug-related offences and sentenced to three and a half years’ imprisonment.

Defence barrister Tom Hancock instructed by Resolute Legal said the woman who had spent 150 days in pre-sentence custody developed a drug addiction while unemployed for an extended period of time.

He said his client who was supported by her family in court had surrounded herself with other drug users but had made attempts to rehabilitate herself since.

Owens pleaded guilty to three counts of supplying drugs and one count each of possessing drugs and possessing anything used in relation to a crime.

She was sentenced to 18 months jail with an immediate parole release date as the 150 days spent in pre-sentence custody was declared as time served.

Originally published as Townsville District Court: Katie Rose Owens sentenced for attempting to supply drugs in court