Schoolboy walks free after giving 13-year-old ecstasy that killed him
Carson Price, 13, took three tablets that he bought from the 14-year-old after arranging a deal on Snapchat.
A schoolboy has walked free from court after selling ecstasy tablets to a teenager which killed him.
Carson Price, 13, took three tablets that he bought from the 14-year-old after arranging a deal on Snapchat.
A court heard he started ‘acting strangely’ before falling and collapsing from a ‘violent reaction’ to the drug he took in a park in South Wales with friends.
The dealer, who is now 15 and cannot be named, told the judge: ‘It was very foolish what I done and I’m very sorry.’
The victim’s heartbroken mother said: ‘All we want is justice and closure’.
The boy was handed a 12 month referral order at a youth court after admitting selling Class A drugs.
After he pleaded guilty to supplying the ecstasy, Carson’s mother Tatum Price, 39, said: ‘I feel like I have been waiting a long time for justice.
‘It will never take away the pain but I think there’s a relief that he pleaded guilty and acknowledged what he has done.
‘It’s been hard and it’s been one day at a time – life has changed completely and it is something that you have got with you for the rest of your life.
‘I’m hoping with this sentencing there will be a little bit of closure for me and I can carry on dealing with my grief.’
Carson met the dealer outside a Texaco garage.
Prosecutor Mike Williams said the boy had asked for £30 for pills, but Carson only had £25, and they had exchanged texts about the price.
He said: ‘Carson’s friend describe the tablets as green in colour in the shape of a Donkey Kong with DK written on them with a split in the middle to break them in two.’
Carson took the drug in Ystrad Park near his home in Hengoed, Caerphilly, in April last year.
Mr Williams said: ‘A post mortem was carried out and toxicology revealed that his death was caused by an adverse reaction to the pills he had taken.’
The defendant was joined by his mother when he appeared at Youth Court in Cwmbran, South Wales.
The court heard the 15-year-old schoolboy was arrested days after Carson’s death and when interviewed he told police he’d been threatened by an adult male to sell the drugs
But Mr Williams said text messages showed the boy had continued to try and secure more drugs – even after Carson had died.
He pleaded guilty to selling class A drugs.
William Bebb, defending, said: ‘He accepts the consequences of his actions have caused immeasurable lasting harm.
‘This is not a case where there was any form of pressure, intimidation or malice.’
Judge Martin Brown called Carson’s death ‘a tragic accident’.
He said: ‘Its impossible to redress the trauma, harm, pain and distress that this has caused.
‘You sold class A drugs to a younger boy and tragically he took all three pills – whether the same effect would have occurred if he had taken one tablet or two no one will ever know.
‘You sold him those drugs and you were 14 at that time – that will make most people take a sharp intake of breath – that a 14 year old boy was selling Class A drugs.’
The judge told the boy he should be ‘traumatised’ by Carson’s death.
He added: ‘You should be saying I will do whatever it takes so that I never put myself in this position ever again and I will try to put right what I have done in this instance.
‘If I ever see you have been charged with possession of any drug, let alone selling them, I want to know about it.’
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