24-05-2025
Glasgow woman caught smuggling cocaine into Barlinnie
Sarah Dempster went to the East End jail on the afternoon of December 29, 2022 to visit William Dempster.
During the visit, a prison officer's attention was drawn to the table where they were sitting because the pair were moving suspiciously and looking around the room.
Employees monitoring CCTV saw the 37-year-old woman take an item from her clothes and pass it to the inmate.
A worker went to the table and the prisoner was taken for a body search.
0.7g of cocaine was found on him, worth £20-50, along with white tablets later identified as Buprenorphine.
The visitor was arrested.
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Ms Dempster appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court earlier this week after she pleaded guilty to taking the substances into the prison.
Her lawyer explained: "These are quite clearly very serious offences, she accepts that.
"She was married to Mr Dempster and he was imprisoned at Barlinnie.
"She has Bipolar Disorder and she said her mental health was particularly poor at that time.
"Threats were made to her and her husband. She does not remember collecting the packets but she knows it was not a good decision."
Sheriff Jonathan Guy replied: "It's a very serious offence.
"Taking drugs into prison puts them into the system. The court has to take it seriously. The sentence needs to signal society's disapproval."
Ms Dempster was sentenced to one year of supervision and tagged for eight months, forcing her to stay at home between 9am and 6am each day.
