Jade ecstasy dealer jailed
The man whose ecstasy tablets killed ten-year-old Jade Slack has been jailed for three and a half years today.
Wayne Wood, 22, of Galgate, Lancashire, was cleared of manslaughter this week. However, he pleaded guilty to selling ecstasy in the months leading up to the schoolgirl’s death and was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Friday.
Wood even admitted selling tablets while Jade lay dying. He pleaded guilty to three charges of supplying Ecstasy and one count of possession with intent.
Jade took five tablets at the home of Wood’s former girlfriend, Rebecca Hodgson, in July 2002.
Ms Hodgson, 21, of Lancaster, was also cleared of manslaughter and had three charges against her left to lie on file following the pair’s trial at Manchester Crown Court.
The court heard Wood had called the house earlier in the day to ask Ms Hodgson to move the ecstasy tablets from their hiding place underneath the sofa. She had taken them and placed them behind one of her son’s soft toys. However, Jade, who had stayed at the house the previous night, found the tablets and took five of them.
Following the trial, Jade’s distraught parents, Simon and Beverley, from Galgate, said the 14 months since her death had been the “most difficult time of our lives”.
“It’s a nightmare and we never wake up from it. The nightmare is constantly there, every day and every night. Jade was, and still is, our life. She brought so much love and happiness to us all and everyone she knew.”
