A 23-year-old woman has been spared prison after pleading guilty to a number of drug offences and assaulting a police officer.

Sophia Miriam Daisy Russell was sentenced by Deemster Graeme Cook on Friday at the Court of General Gaol Delivery.

The court heard that on June 14, 2019, police attended Russell’s former home address in Onchan after reports that a man who under an exclusion order from the island was there.

When they arrived, the man they suspected to be there, opened the door and let the officers in.

When they arrested the man, who was not before the court, they noted a strong smell of cannabis and observed there to be some on the table.

Prosecutor James Robinson told the court that the man said none of the drugs were his and they confiscated them.

Russell was arrested the next day when she returned home and told police the drugs, 0.4g of cannabis resin, 4.8g of cannabis bush with a street value of £96 and five LSD tablets with a value of £25 were for her own personal use.

However, messages on her phone showed she had been involved in the supply of drugs, predominantly cannabis, to others since January 2018.

On January 29 this year, officers were called to Russell’s home due to a concern for a person’s safety.

Upon entering the bedroom they found Russell and her boyfriend along with drugs and some paraphernalia.

As Russell was being searched at the police station, a wrap of cocaine fell to the floor, which officers had to stop her from ingesting.

She was later taken to the police doctor but was refused medication, on the way back to her cell, she became argumentative and struck the custody sergeant in the chest with an open hand.

On this occasion, a search of Russell and her flat found drugs amounting to 2.2g of cocaine with a value of £220 and five gabapentin tablets, for which no value could be given.

On February 1 police again attended Russell’s flat due to reports of a missing person being seen there.

She let officers in and when asked if she had any drugs, Russell told them where to find 2g of cannabis, which was valued at £40.

Addressing Russel, Deemster Cook said she ’seems heavily dependent on certain types of drugs’ and told her: ’You are lucky to be alive and if you carry on like this you may well kill yourself.’

Deemster Cook said she had clearly been supplying cannabis to people for some time and that ’it’s got to stop’, he added that assaulting a police officer is a ’serious matter’ which could have landed her with a two year prison sentence.

For the drug offences, Russell was handed a 18-month sentence, suspended with probation for two years. She was also handed a one month consecutive sentence for the assault on the custody sergeant, also suspended for two years.