(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - A Kamloops woman who tried to smuggle drugs to her boyfriend in jail will serve a six-month jail sentence after leaving the drug rehabilitation program the courts ordered her to complete.

Erin O’Morrow appeared by video in Kamloops Supreme Court today, Dec. 10, after breaching the conditions of an 18-month probation order Justice Hope Hyslop granted her nine months ago.

In November 2013, O’Morrow was caught attempting to smuggle drugs to her boyfriend at the Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre. The two hatched a plan which included O’Morrow leaving a small amount of heroin and meth in a public bathroom at the Royal Inland Hospital. Her boyfriend planned to fake an injury and ask to be taken to hospital to retrieve the drugs, but the two were caught by corrections officers.

O’Morrow was charged with possessing drugs for the purpose of trafficking, but Hyslop at the time said she would ‘take a chance’ on her and granted a suspended sentence in March. O’Morrow was ordered to serve that sentence at a drug rehabilitation facility but breached a term of her probation two days after arriving at the centre.

Crown prosecutor Anthony Varesi said O’Morrow did not comply with the centre's house rules which included remaining on the premises. He said she left the centre on two occasions and failed to report to her probation officer. Varesi said before leaving the location the second time, O'Morrow dyed her hair. 

"The inference is she believed she wouldn't be recognized," he said. "That sentence was really premised on the accused entering the treatment program. She clearly can’t comply with whatever probation is in place."

He added O’Morrow was on the run for several months with a warrant for her arrest. She was eventually taken into custody in October and pleaded guilty to the breaches last month.

Varesi said a jail sentence would be appropriate while O’Morrow’s lawyer, Don Campbell, outlined a plan for house arrest which could help curb mental health issues.

"She’s been in and out of either a form of institution or on the run which has been very difficult for her emotionally,” Campbell said. “She was perhaps a victim of this. She really had nothing to gain in terms of getting drugs to this inmate. She was pressured to do it."

When asked if she had anything to say, O’Morrow said she left the centre to see one of her children.

“Impulsively, I get why I did this. Looking back, that was stupid,” she said.

Hyslop declined to give O’Morrow another chance and put her in jail for six months.

“I think the time has come and I will revoke the suspended sentence order,” Hyslop said.

With time served, O’Morrow will be released within four months.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Glynn Brothen at gbrothen@infonews.ca, or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

News from © iNFOnews, 2015