A former RUC officer turned drugs dealer has been jailed for 18 months in Belfast. A mother of four who was arrested with him was freed after being fined £750. She had been given an 18-month jail term which was suspended for three years out of consideration for her children.
Belfast Crown Court heard yesterday that the former RUC officer, Robert Davidson (42), and Mary Armstrong (38) were arrested leaving her home in Dundela Park, north Belfast, last September.
Davidson, of The Mount, Belfast, and Armstrong pleaded guilty to possessing ecstasy and having it with intent to supply.
The court heard that police caught another man leaving Armstrong's home earlier that evening with drugs which he said he had bought there.
Later they stopped a car being driven by Armstrong with Davidson as a front-seat passenger. The car was searched, and under a mat police uncovered 110 ecstasy tablets divided into four packets.
During a follow-up search of Armstrong's home, police discovered 48 tablets hidden under a mattress and six in a pill box.
Sentencing them, Judge David Smyth said he was showing "exceptional leniency" in Armstrong's case because she was the mother of young children.