A judge hit out at the ‘pernicious’ trade in hard drugs as she sent a warehouseman inside for two-and-a-half years.

Barry O’Loughlin, 46, who in 2021 was jailed for six months for driving Blackbird Leys murder suspect Otman Lamzini to London after the fatal stabbing of Christopher Lemonius in 2017, was arrested after police raided his home on February 28.

Inside the property – at which children were also living – the officers found almost 30g of cocaine, 42g of heroin and another 3.6g of crack cocaine.

Prosecutor Chris Waymont told Oxford Crown Court that a razor blade was found to contain white powder residue, as was a grey plate and a spoon. A set of electronic scales was in working order and had traces of cocaine on them.

The police officers also discovered a samurai sword at the property, the court heard.

Judge Maria Lamb was told that, despite the officer in the case trying to speed up the process, an iPhone seized during the raid had not been downloaded by digital specialists.

That meant the prosecution was unable to prove the assertion, contained in the police summary of the case, that O’Loughlin was the ‘holder’ of the drugs line.

Rather than delay the sentencing hearing, which by Wednesday (May 3) this week had already been adjourned, she agreed to ‘deal with the defendant on the basis he was warehousing’ or storing the drugs.

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Sending him to prison for two-and-a-half years, Judge Lamb described the drugs trade in which O’Loughlin was involved as ‘pernicious’.

“It creates misery for those who fall into its grip,” she told the defendant, who himself had been a drug addict.

In mitigation, it was noted that O'Loughlin had no previous convictions for drugs, was ‘hard-working’ and was supported in court by friends and family.

But the judge added: “Nevertheless, there is certainly the aggravating feature that this was going on at a home that you shared with young children and that is properly a feature I can take into account in looking at the seriousness of these matters.”

She explained that she would take a starting point of three years and nine months’ imprisonment, reducing the sentence by a third to reflect the fact O’Loughlin had pleaded guilty at the first hearing in the magistrates’ court. The resulting sentence of 30 months' imprisonment was too high to be suspended and the dealer given his liberty, she said. 

O’Loughlin, of Greenfinch Close, Oxford, had pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply crack cocaine, cocaine and heroin.