??/??/?? - Leah Teenagers facing court trial

TWO teenagers from Basildon will face trial at Crown Court for allegedly supplying an Ecstasy tablet to Leah Betts at her 18th birthday party.

Stephen Smith, 18, of Weymarks, Basildon, and a 17-year-old from Laindon, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared before Southend stipendiary magistrate Kevin Gray on Wednesday morning.

They were released on bail on condition they live at their home and do not contact each other. Smith and the 17-year-old youth are accused of suppling Ecstasy tablets between November 5 and November 12 last year.

Smith is also charged with supplying four Ecstasy tablets on November 11. They face a committal hearing at Southend Magistrates Court on March 6. Leah, 18, a Basildon College student from Latchingdon, died in Broomfield Hospital on November 16, five days after taking an Ecstasy pill bought from Raquels nightclub in Basildon.

The case, transferred from Chelmsford Crown Court, follows the jailing of three men who acted as drug couriers. Nigel Coy, Richard Gilham and Jason Edwards were jailed a total of 10 years at Chelmsford after police found £5,000 of drugs in a car driven by Coy.

Judge Francis Petre said the distribution of such drugs was a menace to society and anyone caught supplying them should expect to pay a high price.

The court heard how Coy, 24, of Kingsman Road, Stanford-le-Hope, was stopped by police near the Circus Tavern, Purfleet His passengers Gilham, 29, of Tomkins Close and Edwards, 25, of Armstrong Close, Stanford, each had a bag tucked inside their boxer shorts containing 100 Ecstasy tablets.

The three were couriers and the Ecstasy would have been distributed in a London club. Coy admitted to police he had made at least eight similar drops. The court was told that Coy ran a hairdressing business and another 168 Ecstasy tablets were found at his business premises in King Street, Stanford.

Coy admitted to having Ecstasy and amphetamine sulphate with intent to supply and was jailed for four years. Gilham and Edwards each admitted possessing 100 Ecstasy tablets with intent to supply.

They were each jailed for three years.