A MUM whose teenage daughter was jailed for six-and-a-half years for smuggling cocaine into Britain is warning Oxfordshire youngsters not to follow her into prison.

Amanda Merritt, 38, sat and watched 19-year-old Adele Merritt led away to start her sentence shortly after she was convicted of illegally importing £327,000 of the drug from Barbados.

The teenager, of White Road, Cowley, Oxford, admitted the charge at Isleworth Crown Court after she was arrested by customs officials at Heathrow Airport last November.

She was travelling with 20-year-old Delroy Ecclestone, from Battersea, London, who had the cocaine strapped to his body. He was also jailed for six-and-a-half years after admitting the same offence.

Mrs Merritt, manager of Shipley's Amusements in Gloucester Green, Oxford, said a year ago, Adele was a popular, pretty teenager with her life ahead of her.

Her one mistake, she said, was meeting a man called Michael at the Park End nightclub, Park End Street, who offered her £3,000 and a seven-day holiday in Barbados if she would help bring back a package. Adele agreed. Mrs Merritt, of North Street, Bicester, said: "Adele was just very naive and stupid. She thought Michael liked her in terms of a boy-girl relationship.

"She didn't discuss what she was doing with me but she did say she would be going away with some guy, who would be bringing back counterfeit money.

"I said 'don't be stupid' but after that I couldn't get hold of her. The next thing I knew she was in Barbados and then that she had been arrested. Adele just thought of the money, which in her eyes was a deposit for a flat of her own. She didn't get the money and she hasn't heard from Michael since."

Adele, a former pupil at St Augustine's School, Oxford, who has ambitions to be a nursery nurse, is serving her sentence at Eastwood Park prison in Gloucestershire. Mrs Merritt said her daughter's life was now in ruins.

"She can rebuild her life when she gets out but if there was one good thing to come out of this, it would be if we could warn young people not to get involved."

She said the experience had opened her eyes to the evil and widespread nature of the drug scene and warned other youngsters not to be sucked in like her daughter.

She said: "You only have to go to Uxbridge Magistrates Court to see the situation. It's frightening. Heathrow is nearby and 90 per cent of what the court deal with is to do with drugs. There are so many young people there.

"I hate this Michael for what he has done to Adele. She shouldn't have done what she did but she says she thought they were just bringing back money and I believe her, even though the judge didn't.

Mrs Merritt said: "Adele had tried a few drugs before, like most young people do, but she was no way a user. She didn't even smoke.

"When the judge gave the sentence she was in shock. She couldn't believe it and nor could we. You don't really think things like this go on. You read about it in newspapers and see it on the television, but not with someone you know, especially not your daughter.

"She's a very popular girl and all her friends can't believe what's happened, but their lives are going on. Adele's missing out on her youth.

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