UK - Man died after hotel room heroin

[Smirnoff]

A woman who killed a man by giving him heroin to inject in a Glasgow hotel has avoided a jail sentence.

Mariel McElhinney, 22, from Lanark, who was working as a prostitute at the time, admitted supplying the drug to client Michael McIntyre.

Staff at the Alexander Thomson hotel found the 30-year-old dead in his room.

At the High Court in Glasgow judge Lord Turnbull placed McElhinney on a drug treatment and testing order after hearing she had turned her life around.

The court heard that McElhinney was working as a prostitute to feed her drugs habit.

She was picked up by Michael McGuire on 5 December 2007 and they booked into the hotel in Argyle Street.

She asked him if he wanted her to "cook him up a bit of heroin". She told police that he agreed and said he could inject himself.

The next morning she left the hotel telling staff her boyfriend was sleeping and needed a late checkout.

When hotel staff tried to wake him they discovered he was dead.
The court heard that McElhinney was traced by police because she had left a note for Mr McGuire with a mobile phone number on it.

She admitted the culpable homicide of Mr McGuire by recklessly supplying him with a lethal drug.

Defence counsel Thomas Ross told the court that since the death of Mr McGuire his client had transformed her life.

He said she was no longer involved with drugs or prostitution and did voluntary charity work.

He added: "She is now unrecognisable from the woman she was and I would ask the court to allow her to continue with her progress in the community."

'Undue influence'
Judge Lord Turnball said: "Any criminal conduct which leads to the loss of a life is always treated seriously. But not all cases have the same level of culpability.

"It would be quite wrong of me to exclude Mr McGuire's own contribution to his death.

"He was a mature man and able to make decisions for himself. There is no suggestion that you exercised undue influence over him, apart from asking a simple question."

He told McElhinney that if she breached the stringent conditions of the drug testing order she would be brought back to court and could be sent to prison.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/s...al/8275028.stm