A Fife woman was found guilty of dealing heroin after her DNA was found on the knot of a food bag containing the brown powder in a jacket pocket in her home.
Gillian Hay had suggested during her trial someone else put the bag inside the clothing without her knowledge.
She said her DNA could have been on it because she regularly used food bags for items such as onions and would “pull them out in loads”.
The 39-year-old, of New Flockhouse in Lochore, also claimed to not know anything about a mobile phone in her home, which was found to have received text messages to someone called ‘Gill’ alluding to potential drug deals.
Hay’s friend, Adam Bett, who was jailed earlier this month for breaking through a shop roof to steal £400 to fund a drug habit, gave evidence in her defence that he brought the drugs into her home and hid them in jackets without her knowledge.
Bett, who said he had a spare key to Hay’s property so he could walk her dog, claimed he had moved heroin and Valium tablets there.
He said police had failed to find them during a previous raid on his home.
However, Sheriff Alison Michie found Hay guilty of possessing heroin and class C etizolam tablets (also known as ‘street Valium’) with intent to supply in February 2019.
DNA on bag knot
During the trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, senior procurator fiscal depute Azrah Yousaf asked Hay why her DNA was found on the knot of a bag containing 62g of heroin inside a woman’s jacket in a wardrobe.
Hay replied: “They are food bags and I use them all the time.
“Food bags are on a roll and I pull them out in loads and so my DNA touches every bag.
“I use the bags for onions, all sorts of things.”
When Mr Bett was asked by defence lawyer Alan Davie about how he stored the drugs he said he took to Hay’s home, he claimed to have raked through a drawer in her bedroom and found them, before bagging them up and hiding them in jackets.
When asked by the depute fiscal how the heroin was packaged, Bett said it was already in a bag from his own home.
He later said he could not recall exactly how the drugs were packaged as he was “taking a lot of drugs at the time.”
The 37-year-old also said he took a mobile phone to Hay’s home, which he used to contact people about drugs.
He said he left it in her bedroom but he could not explain who ‘Gill’ was when questioned.
Ms Yousaf told Bett he was making up the story to save his friend from getting into trouble and suggested he took the drugs there in order for her to sell them on.
Guilty
Sheriff Michie said: “The difficulty for the accused is that her DNA was found on the knot.
“Considering these matters, I don’t consider the position by the accused as reliable or credible and do not have reasonable doubt of guilt.”
Hay’s sentencing was deferred until April 14 for the production of background reports.
