SPARED JAIL, THE TEACHING ASSISTANT WHO GAVE CHILDREN CANNABIS SO
THEY WOULDN'T GO TO DEALERS

A teaching assistant who gave her children cannabis was spared jail
yesterday after a judge heard she did it to stop them visiting street
dealers.

Nicola Cooper, 43, intervened when she learned her teenage son and
daughter had experimented with the drug.

She feared they would be lured into trying harder drugs and become
involved in crime.

When police raided her home they found 116 grams of cannabis resin,
worth UKP200.

Cooper could have been jailed but a district judge ordered her to 200
hours' community work after hearing about her good character.

She had already quit her job following her arrest earlier this
year.

Speaking after the hearing, Cooper insisted she had "done the right
thing" to keep her children away from dealers.

But she added: "I don't want my children involved in it any
more.

"I think I was very lucky today. I could have been given a much
heavier sentence or even jailed.

"The kids would just come down and say, 'Do you mind if we pinch a
little smoke because we fancy one?'

"I regret breaking the law and feel sorry for that.

"Some people give their children alcohol and cigarettes at an early
age - but I gave mine cannabis."

Cooper said the cannabis police found in her house had been for her
own use and described herself and her partner of 25 years, engineering
company director Ian Leppard, 51, as "liberal parents".

She insisted smoking cannabis had not harmed her daughter, Emily, 18,
who is studying for A-levels, and her son, Jacob, 20, who is working.

Bury St Edmunds Magistrates heard that Cooper, who had been a support
assistant at Barrow Primary School in Suffolk for four years, had used
cannabis herself "on and off" since she was 18.

She started giving the drug to her daughter when she was 16 and son
when he was 18 but insisted she only allowed them to use it
occasionally.

On June 16, police, acting on "intelligence", presented her with a
warrant to search her home in Ixworth, near Bury St Edmunds, and she
led them to where she stashed the drug. At a hearing last month, she
admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply and offering to
supply the drug.

Kevin McCarthy, defending, said it was "ironic" that Cooper had acted
to keep her children away from dealers.

"The reason for the supply was to keep those cherished children away
from the drug culture," he said.

The court received letters of support for Cooper, including one from a
GP and another from a retired detective who spent 32 years with
Suffolk police.

A note from Barrow Primary head John Gibson said she had been a
"valuable member of staff".

District Judge David Cooper accepted Cooper had been "a good teacher"
but accused her of "sheer arrogance" in acting as if the law did not
apply to her.

"Until the law is changed, you must abide by it," he said. "It's
particularly important for a teacher to ensure that she does."

A Suffolk County Council spokesman said: "She has resigned her post
and that is the end of it. It is a matter of concern to the school and
the council if anyone breaks the law when it has relevance to their
jobs."

Cooper, a former nursery nurse, nanny and ceramics painter, added
after the case that while she had smoked cannabis since her teens, she
had often gone without it for long periods.

"I don't want to touch it again," she said.

"The whole point was that it was a relaxing thing. But there is
nothing relaxing about it if you think the police are going to burst
into your home at any moment."

Her partner Mr Leppard said: "When we found out our kids were smoking,
we sat down as a family to discuss it.

"We didn't want them to hide it but told them that it was not big or
clever and they should be responsible.

"We didn't want them getting involved in anything else or the
underground drug culture. We just told them to stay at home and keep
it to themselves.

"Cannabis was something we just had in the house. We have no idea how
the police became involved."

Martin Barnes, chief executive of the charity Drugscope, said:
"Although it is understandable that parents will want to protect
children from dealers, we would strongly advise against supplying the
drugs - not least because it does not address the drug use and the
potential harm."