A MOTHER caught red-handed with double-strength heroin was today behind bars after she spurned chance after chance to keep her freedom.

Last November, Recorder Tim Clayson gave Sarah Brough, now 22, two years' probation instead of the prison sentence normally handed out for possessing the drug with intent to supply.

Her barrister, Tom Storey, told York Crown Court last November that she feared her violent boyfriend would harm her six-year-old child unless she fetched heroin wraps for him.

But yesterday, when she claimed her relationship had also prevented her doing the probation, Recorder Alaric Dalziel said she had to go to jail. He locked her up for 12 months, saying probation officers had "bent over backwards to help her", but she had given up chance after chance.

Brough, of Ordnance Lane, Fulford, York, pleaded guilty to breaching a probation order imposed for possessing heroin with intent.

The court heard she had handled stolen goods while on probation and had previous convictions for dishonesty.

Last November, York Crown Court heard how police watched as Brough fetched ten wraps of 78 per cent purity heroin by bicycle. They had a value of about £300.

Mr Storey said the boyfriend was then in jail for offences including child assault and she planned to stay away from him on his release.

But when the probation service sent her back to court because she failed to keep appointment after appointment with them, Recorder Dalziel heard that the couple had got back together again.

Her new barrister, Geraldine Kelly, said she had failed to do her probation order because she had been under strong emotional pressure as social services had refused to let her son live in the same house as her boyfriend.

She had now left the boyfriend for good as he had been violent towards her again and she feared he had broken her ribs.

Updated: 11:09 Saturday, September 08, 2001