A NAIVE mother succumbed to emotional pressure and agreed to try to smuggle drugs into a high-security prison for her killer son, a court was told.

But Janet Eunice Richardson’s attempts to complete the handover to son Graham aroused the suspicions of officers monitoring the visitors' area of Frankland Prison, Durham.

She was caught after successfully passing over some wrapped pills, and a subsequent search at a police station revealed two further packages hidden in her clothing.

It landed the previously unconvicted 54-year-old charity worker before Durham Crown Court where she was today (Friday February 6) jailed herself.

Richardson, of Birch View, Pickering, North Yorkshire, admitted supplying the class C drug, buprenorphine, relating to the 24 pills successfully handed to her son, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of antiques dealer Peter Battle.

She also pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of drugs, of classes A, B and C, with intent to supply, during the visit on August 28 last year.

Those charges refer to amounts of heroin, cannabis and buprenorphine, respectively, found in the two packages, including a blue balloon, secreted in her clothing.

Richardson was said to have been pressured to bring the drugs into the prison in messages from her son, who was only eight months into his sentence, of which he must serve at least 27 years.

The court heard the killer told his mother he was contemplating suicide as he was being pressured by other inmates to get hold of drugs.

Maria Tenkow, mitigating, told the court: “She has suffered depression for some time and she has become yet another victim of her son’s behaviour.

“He persuaded her. He stated he would hang himself as he had nothing to live for unless she assisted him.

“She rather foolishly did so, through a sense of ‘guilt’, her naivety and the effects of depression.

“She was certainly emotionally blackmailed into this offence.

“She stood to make no gain, other than doing something for her son, to assist him in his time in prison, and she now realises it was very foolish.”

Jailing her for a year, however, Judge Christopher Prince said there had to be a “deterrent element” to the sentence to dissuade other family members and friends of inmates from giving in to pressure to attempt to supply prisoners with illicit substances.

He told her: “Taking drugs into prison is a most serious offence.

“It creates a danger to those within the prison, quite apart from the harm it can cause to users, and it interferes with the ordinary working of prison life."

** Graham Richardson, of Norton, North Yorkshire, was convicted of murdering Mr Battle, following a trial at Teesside Crown Court in December 2013.

He arranged a meeting at Mr Battle’s cottage in Full Sutton, near York, supposedly intending to buy quantities of gold from the dealer, on December 30, 2012.

But it was said to have been a trap as he attacked and bludgeoned Mr Battle to death, before plundering his belongings.

The body of the 56-year-old former York computer salesman lay undiscovered at the house until police broke in and made the grim discovery five weeks later.