Christina Ann Rolston: Portadown woman sentenced as Craigavon Crown Court judge describes her as 'street dealer' for cocaine and cannabis
A Co Armagh woman who was “flat out” working as a runner for her drug dealer has been handed a 15-month sentence.
Ordering Christina Ann Rolston to serve four months of her sentence in jail and the rest on licence, Judge Patrick McGurgan told the 47-year-old he was departing from the usual 50/50 split to try to offer more help to deal with underlying issues.
The Craigavon Crown Court judge told Rolston, that despite her efforts to minimise her role, he was satisfied that she had been working “as a street dealer”.
He highlighted that if there was any doubt of that, a text message retrieved by police officers where the dealer himself told a customer Rolston “is working flat out for me - she’ll sort you out,” proved her role.
Rolston, whose address was listed as Woodview Avenue in Portadown, had earlier entered guilty pleas to four drug offences, committed between December 14, 2021 and September 30, 2022, including being concerned in the supply of cocaine and cannabis and simple possession of the Class A and B drugs.
Summarising the case during his sentencing remarks, Judge McGurgan outlined how a police search of Rolston’s property recovered deal lists, a large amount of deal bags, scales, drugs and a mobile phone.
Despite her claims during police interviews the deal list related “to the sale of beer” rather than drugs, the judge said it was clear that while living in “an annexe or shed”, the defendant had been acting as a drug bagger and runner for her own dealer.
He told the court that once Rolston had started, she “found it difficult to extricate herself” from that role.
Judge McGurgan said, however, he had to take account of the fact that drugs “cause significant harm to those who use them and the many others they encounter”.
He told Rolston that despite her guilty pleas and troubled background, the requirement to punish her and deter others meant that “only a jail sentence is justified”.
As well as imposing the 15-month sentence, the judge ordered that the drugs and associated paraphernalia be destroyed.