Hayley Cook, aged 39, from Longbridge, has twice been convicted for helping serial criminal partner Carl Brookes
Carl Brookes(Image: NCA / SWNS)
A mum has said she cannot leave her criminal boyfriend despite nearly being jailed trying to help him.
Hayley Cook posted parcels to prison containing mobile phones, chargers, tablets and sheets soaked in ‘Spice’, to her partner Carl Brookes.
The latter has an extrensive criminal record and was jailed in 2022 for firearms offences but is due to be released this month.
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But Cook, who has two children with him, vowed to stay with him even though it increased the risk of her committing crime herself.
The decision prompted scathing criticism from Judge Sarah Buckingham who effectively told her to leave Brookes for the sake of herself and her children.
The 39-year-old from Dearmont Road, Longbridge, admitted two counts of conveying a prohibited item into prison.
But she was spared jail at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday, September 11, largely due to the impact her incarceration would have on her two children who have difficulties in education.
Instead, she was sentenced to 23 months suspended for two years.
Richard Simons, defending, said: “She is remorseful. Her continuing relationship with Mr Brookes does not detract from that remorse.
“The reality is as she sees it she will never be able to not be in close contact with him because of the fact they have two children together and the children, as you might expect regardles of Mr Brookes’ criminality, see him lovingly as their father.
“But she also made this observation: ‘Unless he finds someone else and leaves me that would be my only way out’.”
Brookes has 27 previous convictions for 39 offences.
In May 2021 armed police stopped him and four other men in a BMW in Kings Norton.
Moment officers arrest gang at gunpoint(Image: NCA)
They subsequently found a loaded handgun, ammunition, knives and a sledgehamer.
The gang were jailed in December 2022 with Brookes receiving seven years.
By that time he was already in custody at HMP Dovegate in Staffordshire.
Cook sent him the illegal parcels on April 12 and 14 that year.
The first package contained a large stereo and speakers which could not be scanned by prison equipment so officers had to physically examine it.
They removed the back and found two iPhones and chargers concealed within the electric board.
Cook’s fingerprints were found on the clingfilm wrapping on the mobiles.
Two days later she sent another package into the jail.
It included clothes as well as 97 tablets of oxymetholone, which is a steroid, and 55 sheets of paper soaked in a synthetic cannabis known as ‘Spice’.
Messages talking about the parcels were found on Cook’s phone.
Prosecutor Matthew Cullen stated she had ‘willingly involed herself in a context of a domestically violent and threatening relationship’.
But he added Cook had told social workers she had no concerns about Brookes returning to her home following his expected release on September 25 this year. She also declined ‘safeguarding’.
Cook has previously received a suspended sentence for perverting the course of justice by making a false report of a Range Rover being stolen after Brookes had rammed police with it the previous night.
Mr Simons outlined her children’s various difficulties and said: “The fact she has significantly jeopardised her immediate future with them is a source of distress and anxiety to her.”
Judge Buckingham showed little sympathy as she explained how illegal items in prisons fuelled disorder and disruption risking the safety of staff and inmates.
She acknowledged Brookes had likely exterted some form of ‘pressure’ on Cook but concluded she was not a ‘trapped woman’.
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Judge Buckingham said: “Your partner however dominant he may be, however bullying and controlling and arrogant a man he may be, exterting control whether physical or emotional, ultimately you have made the decision to remain in a relationship with him.”
She stated jail would ‘compound’ her children’s difficulties and recognised Cook had a high prospect of rehabilitation.
Cook was ordered to carry out 20 days of rehabilitation activity, 125 hours of unpaid work and pay £500 in costs.
Judge Buckingham added: “I hope you will reflect and take steps to separate yourself from him, not just for your own benefit but also the sake of your children.
“Of course children love their parents and see the good in him but you know the other side of him and continue to expose your children to him.
“No wonder social services will be involved in your life.”