Bride-to-be is spared jail after telling court she is pregnant

A bride-to-be who helped her fiancé run a cocaine ring was spared jail after revealing she had just become pregnant with his child.

Sasha Ellis-Johnson, 22, acted as a go-between for customers of 21-year old Joe Cooke after he peddled cocaine to friends to pay off a £2,000 drug debt.

Over a six month period Ellis-Johnson fielded messages which read: 'Can we pick up another bag? Got cash. We will get a taxi there and back if Joe wants to sell for us.'

Another said: 'Hey love is your bf about cause we want a bag and got cash' to which she replied, 'Ring this number or text it... he's going to ring you now.'

Despite her involvement, the judge sentencing noted Ms Ellis-Johnson was pregnant and that incarceration would result in the 'loss of [her] home'.

Police had arrested the couple as they were getting into a taxi near their home in Crewe, Cheshire.

Officers who searched their house found cocaine ready for delivery, scales, snap bags, and cash in a drawer in the couple's bedroom. Further drugs were found stashed in Cook's underpants.

In a statement Ellis-Johnson said: 'At the time of the offending I was aware Joe had a cocaine habit and had accumulated a drug debt. As a result he was selling drugs to pay off his drug debt.

'I was never directly involved in the supply of drugs but accept that I facilitated in the supply of drugs by providing contact details of my partner and passing contact details on to him. I was contacted by friends who wanted to buy cocaine and I passed Joe's contact details on to them.

'In relation to the message exchanges, this was a time when Joe used my phone. I accept that I facilitated the drug exchange at that time with the messages from my mobile phone. I was never involved with supplying users directly but facilitated the exchange.'

Cooke said Ellis-Johnson had been pregnant previously by him but she lost the child and added: 'We were struggling financially and I was using cocaine as a coping mechanism. I accumulated a drug debt and the people who supplied me with drugs put pressure on me to pay off the debt and told me to sell cocaine. I started selling cocaine to friends or mutual friends.'

The pair are expecting another baby next May after she discovered she was pregnant just weeks before they were due to be sentenced.

At Chester Crown Court, Ellis-Johnson pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine and was sentenced to 16 months sentence suspended for two years along with 200 hours of unpaid work and 15 days of rehabilitation with the probation service.

She broke down and wept as Cooke was jailed for 28 months having pleaded guilty to possessing with intent to supply and acquiring criminal property.

Prosecutor Karl Scholz said: 'On 20th June 2024 at about 4.45pm officers executed a warrant at the couple's address in Crewe. No one was inside, however both defendants were seen entering a taxi close by. Both were asked to step down from the taxi, which they did, and accompanied officers back to their home.

'A search of the taxi revealed a snap bag containing white powder under the floor mat where Ellis-Johnson had been seated. During a search of the property, within the top drawer of a chest of drawers in their bedroom, a number of snap bags containing white powder were found inside two plastic bags as well as two individual snap bags also containing white powder.

'Cooke was taken to the shower room to be searched. He confirmed that he had something concealed on him and produced from within his underpants a plastic bag containing a number of snap bags each containing white powder.'

 The court heard 24 wraps of cocaine in 0.5 gram and 1.75 gram weights were seized with a value of up to £1,380 and £1,315 in cash was found.

Exchanges of messages recovered from Cooke's phone read: 'I tic ya some more once ja sort some of your bill. You got half a 1 cash bro.'

Others showed Cooke using threats to secure payment saying: 'If you aint sort me £300 by time i get back i'm coming round... ya windows getting done simple pay your debt. Yer car won't have tyres when ya wake up for work.... when the f*** are ya gonna have my money.. it's half a grand.. I want my f****** money'.

In mitigation defence counsel Adam Watkins said: ' Joe Cooke dealt class A drugs on a relatively modest scale. It was a pattern of behaviour that he fell into through his own habit and through his own addiction. Miss Ellis-Johnson's involvement is much lower. The word peripheral arguably applies to her role although that does not excuse it.

'She got involved through loyalty rather than for any financial benefit to herself, that was immaturity and naivety. One other feature is that they have only just recently discovered she is in the early stages of pregnancy. She is due to give birth in May of next year.'

In sentencing Judge Michael Leeming told Ellis-Johnson: 'You facilitated your boyfriend's supply by passing on details as and when required. But you present a low risk of reoffending or serious reoffending and are a low risk to the public. The mitigating factors are your personal mitigation, the fact that you are currently pregnant and an immediate custodial sentence may result in the loss of your home.'