Marion Howe wanted her son to start using steroids to prevent other inmates from bullying him.
Marion Howe learned that her son was being bullied while serving time in the HM Parc Prison in Bridgend, Wales. It was obvious to Marion Howe what needed to be done. She would smuggle some anabolic steroids into prison so that the inmates would stop kicking stand in her son’s face.
So Howe decided to take action on March 7, 2019. Howe recruited her partner Mark Schofield to go with her and smuggle two packages of oral anabolic steroid pills to her son during scheduled visiting hours.
The steroid smuggling operation was not “particularly sophisticated”.
Howe and Schofield sat down at a table across from Howe’s inmate son in the prison’s visiting area. Schofield pulled out a package and passed it across the table. The inmate took the package and quickly shoved it down his pants and “hid it inside his body”.
Howe and Schofield were oblivious to the fact that their every move was being watched and recorded by a closed-circuit video camera.
Prison guards entered the visiting area within seconds on the contraband exchange. The inmate was taken into custody and immediately searched. The package was disturbingly never recovered.
Howe and Schofield were taken to another waiting area. They were still being observed on camera when Schofield attempted to dispose of the second package by hiding it behind a bench.
The second package was recovered. It contained 21 tablets of an unspecified anabolic steroid with an estimated prison contraband value of £75 and £100.
“It did not appear to be a particularly sophisticated effort to smuggle drugs into the prison,” according to prosecutor Jeuan Bennett.
Judge Richard Williams sentenced Howe and Schofield to nine months and eight months imprisonment, respectively. Both prison sentences were fully suspend for 12 months.
The couple will be able to avoid going to jail as long as they complete a court-ordered rehabilitation program. The judge ordered 15 days of rehabilitation for Howe and 6 days of rehabilitation for Schofield.