Lawyer questions wisdom of Probation Service after they housed alcoholic man above a pub

A man with an alcohol and heroin problem was sent to live above a pub by the Probation Service. David Philip Earnshaw fell off the wagon during his placement. He has now been jailed for a year after again hitting the booze and returning to drug dealing.

Mold Crown Court heard that on his release from prison last summer there had been plans to put him in a hostel, but he ended up being placed above the Red Lion in Dyserth, Denbighshire, Wales. His defence barrister Andrew Green told the court that Earnshaw, 41, took up drinking again because “every day he could see it, he could smell it”.



His return to the drink disrupted his methadone treatment for heroin addiction, and he decided to seek out drugs for himself. Mr Green said: “For a man who has addiction problems, including alcohol addiction, you would have thought that to house him above the public house was probably not the most appropriate place to put him.” He was arrested in Flint, where he was found to have drugs stashed inside Kinder eggs.

He admitted possessing heroin, cannabis with intent to supply and more than 100 tablets which turned out to be a class C drug, also with intent to supply, in August last year. Earnshaw was released from a sentence for robbery last year, and was housed in Bangor. After a 28 day recall to prison, he was then put above the pub and told to “grin and bear it”. Mr Green added: “He is not seeking to abdicate his responsibility or seeking to blame anyone else for what he has done.” He said Earnshaw, now of no fixed abode, entirely accepted responsibility for his actions.