A DRUG dealer who had travelled to Stratford to sell heroin and crack cocaine was caught after jumping out of a first-floor window.
But Storm Williams escaped being jailed after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to possessing the drugs with intent to supply them.
Williams of Grosvenor Road, Aston, Birmingham, who also admitted possessing a bladed article in public, was sentenced to 20 months suspended for 18 months.
Judge Anthony Potter also gave the 19-year-old a three-month curfew and ordered him to join an alcohol abstinence programme and a rehabilitation activity.
In April 2019, the police went to an address in Masons Road looking for another person.
But Williams was there and, at the sight of police, fled through a first-floor window.
Williams was caught and found with a hunting knife, 54 wraps of crack cocaine and six of heroin and cash.
Judge Potter observed: “The pre-sentence report says he is an angry young man who is virtually unmanageable.”
But Andrew Jackson, defending, pointed out he was 17 and said he had since ‘confronted his demons, warts and all,’ and referred himself to various agencies for help.
He explained Williams – who had conviction after stabbing a man in the stomach two days before the incident in Stratford – was sentenced two-and-a-half years ago for the wounding although was not charged until August this year.
He said Williams suffered from Asperger’s and had not been convicted of any further offences since this one.
He added: “He is a very different individual now. He has places offered at two colleges, subject to the outcome of this hearing.”
Judge Potter said: “I won’t pretend this has been an easy decision. I have been sentencing people of your age and much older for 11 years, and I have sentenced hundreds of people for the supply of drugs, which is a cancer on society.
“It wrecks lives, not just of the people who take the drugs, but other people who have to live with them and people who are subjected to offences by them to get money for those drugs.
“I can think of only one other occasion when I have not sent someone to prison for a number of years.
“It is right that people living in Stratford know that the court’s general policy is that people who involve themselves in this will go to prison, even if manipulated by those older and wiser than them.
“But the other policy is that young people should be sentenced as close as possible to the offence.
“You committed two sets of serious offences two days apart, but they’re being sentenced two-and-a-half years apart.
“The other offence was dealt with in June 2019 when you were 17, and this offence is being dealt with when you are about to be 20 because it’s taken two-and-a-half years to get to court.
“It is plain the delay in this case has been down to the prosecution and the way they have approached the case, and difficulties with staffing and the like.
“The real issue is what you have done in that two-and-a-half years. I am not going to send you to prison, but I am going to reserve any breaches to myself. If you breach it, I assure you there will be absolutely no mercy.”
