HAMILTON, Bermuda – The High Court has handed down a 13 year jail term on a 20-year-old Bermudian woman, who pleaded guilty to importing more than US$650 000 worth of heroin into the island.
The court was told that Co-Shae Bartrum smuggled the drugs inside her body on a flight from London in May last year. She pleaded guilty to the charge of importation of the 274 grams of heroin with a street value of US$657,600.
Prosecutor Nicole Smith told Supreme Court that while going through customs at L.F. Wade International Airport, Bartrum appeared suspicious and was asked to go to a secondary search area.
Customs officers asked her to remove items of clothing and found drugs, of 36 per cent purity, wrapped in a condom.
Bartrum told officers her boyfriend, who was travelling with her, was unaware of what she had done.
She said she bought the drugs for 1,200 pounds (around US$1,900) in the United Kingdom and was planning to distribute it “wholesale” in Bermuda.
Defence lawyer Charles Richardson described his client as a young woman with “tumultuous” upbringing.
He said from her birth up until 14 years of age, Bartrum lived in nine different places.
“Up until the age of 12 she was made to believe her father was dead. Only at the age of 12 did she become acquainted with him,” he added.
Richardson told the court Bartrum was kicked out of her mother’s home, because of a boy she was dating and “thrust back out into the cruel, cold world”.
He said his client had been able to hold down some minimum wage jobs as a grocery shelf-packer and in the hospitality industry and had dreams of becoming a chef.
“I would like to say I am sorry to the courts for wasting their time … but if you give me half a chance I can prove to you and Bermuda I can turn my life around,” Bartrum told the court on Tuesday when she appeared for sentencing.
But while Justice Charles-Etta Simmons took into account Bartrum’s early guilty plea, youth and life circumstances, she said it was a very serious drug trafficking offence which involved the importing of a substantial amount of heroin.
CMC
