Snapchat drug dealer jailed after Wirral girl's MDMA death

A teenage drug dealer who used social media site Snapchat as "a marketing tool" has been jailed for supplying MDMA that killed a 14-year-old girl.

Bethany Devlin-McCrone, from Wirral, died two hours after taking the drug.

Connor Parrish, 19, was introduced to drugs by his own father and began supplying to finance his cannabis addiction, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Judge Neil Flewitt, QC, told him there was a "direct link" between the drugs he supplied and the girl's death.

Sentencing Parrish, of Cobden Avenue, Tranmere, to four years, Judge Flewitt said: "You used Snapchat as a marketing tool...and that led to it going beyond your small group of acquaintances."

This case was "a tragic reminder that every time you deal drugs of this sort you are gambling with the lives of your customers", he said.

He added Parrish's father should also be feeling "a degree of responsibility".

Parrish admitted supplying MDMA to a 14-year-old boy who bought the drug for Bethany and her friend on 24 July 2018, as well two offences of supplying the drug and cocaine, and possessing cocaine and ketamine.

Christopher Hopkins, prosecuting, said Bethany, of Greasby, contacted Parrish via Snapchat and arranged for the boy to collect and pay £30 for two tablets and powder.

Bethany became "erratic and hyperactive, screaming at the wall and punching it and screaming at herself in front of a mirror" after taking a pill and mixing the powder with liquid in a bottle, the court was told.

Paramedics could not revive her when she later passed out, the court heard.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, Bethany's mum, Angela Devlin, said two of the girl's three younger brothers now suffered night terrors as a result of her death.