While Barbara Blewden pleaded guilty to the offences she had denied supplying drugs; she had a poor memory and 'it may be there is some confusion.' Photo / Supplied
While Barbara Blewden pleaded guilty to the offences she had denied supplying drugs; she had a poor memory and 'it may be there is some confusion.' Photo / Supplied
A New Zealand grandmother caught supplying heroin from her council flat has escaped jail.
Barbara Blewden, 78, received a suspended six-month prison sentence and was also put on a six month good behaviour bond today in the New South Wales District Court.
Judge Kate Traill said Blewden had been "substantiallyinvolved in the trafficking of drugs" from her flat at Surry Hills in Sydney's inner city, the Daily Mail Australia reported.
However the amounts of heroin she had supplied were "extremely small" and her offending was at the lower end of the scale.
Blewden pleaded guilty to the deemed supply of amphetamine and the supply of a small quantity of heroin between February and March 2017.
The amphetamine charge related to drugs Blewden told police were for her own use. Blewden said she had begun taking amphetamines on weekends when she was about 60.
"Its seems that the supplies were very small amounts when one looks at the facts," Blewden's lawyer Douglas Marr said.
She was in poor health and was suffering early onset dementia and had heart disease, the court heard.
Marr said while Blewden pleaded guilty to the offences she had denied supplying drugs; she had a poor memory and "it may be there is some confusion".
Blewden told Daily Mail Australia shortly after her arrest last year she had been terrified when police arrived at her door on the morning they raided her home.
"It was just before nine o'clock when I decided to go down to the shops but when I opened the door police in big jackets and helmets started yelling at me," she said.
Blewden's arrest made headlines across Australia.
"It was very frightening, I just opened the door then six of them dressed like Ninja Turtles and with guns came in the door shouting at me to sit down and stay still.
"I didn't know what was going on they were all just shouting.
"They made a mess and went through everything and took me to the police station where I had to sit in a cell for five hours. It was so cold.
"I'm so scared of jail and scared they might make me go back to New Zealand I haven't been there in over 50 years, I don't know anyone."
