CONVICTED (2022) | Claire Anderson, born c. 1988, of Hazelwood Road, Hazel Grove, Stockport SK7 4NA – blew cannabis smoke up her pet dog’s nose to impress her jailbird boyfriend.
The court heard that Anderson had been speaking to her partner James Millington, who had called her from prison at 11pm on November 26, 2020. Anderson was smoking a cannabis joint at the time of the phone call, which was recorded.
The court heard that Anderson’s dog, called Benji, could be heard in the background of the call. Millington told Anderson: “Put your hand around his nose, put the joint in your mouth and blow.”
After confirming to Millington that she had followed his instructions, the dog could be heard ‘making quite a loud groan’ in the recording of the call, the prosecutor told the court. She added: “Mr Millington asked ‘did it go up his nose’. The defendant laughed and said ‘I think so’. She offered to do it again.”
Having heard Benji starting to cough, Millington asked Anderson if the noise was coming from the dog. Anderson replied: “Yeah that’s him. He hates smoking. You know what it’s like when I’m smoking, he starts sneezing.”
Before the phone call ended, Millington spoke to Anderson about making Benji ingest cannabis again once he had been released from prison.
A veterinarian’s report read in court stated that dogs can fall over and ‘become unsteady’ from ingesting cannabis, while their pupils dilate similar to humans’.
The court heard Anderson had four previous criminal convictions, with the most recent coming earlier in 2022 for her part in a conspiracy to smuggle drugs into HMP Doncaster, which also involves Millington, 31, of HMP Leeds.
Earlier in April 2022, Anderson was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for being concerned in the supply of Class B and C drugs into prison between 2017 and 2020, conspiring to supply Class B drugs into prison and conspiring to convey List B articles into prison.
Anderson was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal following a trial. She appeared at Stockport Magistrates Court via video link from New Hall prison in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
Sentencing | four-week prison sentence to run concurrently with her existing jail term; ordered to pay a total of £428 in costs and charges. Disqualified from owning or keeping an animal for 10 years.