The mother of a crack addict jailed for armed robbery has spoken of her her own battle with drugs - and her anger at his "lenient" sentence.

As Essex Police launched a campaign to wipe out the evil of crack cocaine, the 43-year-old mother of David Dennington - sentenced to four years in prison for a string of robberies in Southend and Basildon - hopes her move will help other parents of addicts.

The woman, who lives in the Basildon area, but has asked not to be named, still remembers the agony of having to give up her two sons when David was just five years old.

She said: "He was taken into care because I was on heroin. I pulled my socks up very quickly afterwards but it was too late by then.

"I didn't have a good life as a child and I used heroin to become oblivious to it all. I just couldn't cope."

Years later, after she had quit drugs with the help of Narcotics Anonymous, David came back into her life. But he returned with greater problems than she could have imagined - drug addiction, crime sprees and frequent visits to prison.

She said: "He had been put into foster care and later adopted. But at 17 - five years ago - he returned. I didn't see a lot of him as he was in and out of prison, mostly for drug related crimes. I tried to talk to him. I told him to get help. I couldn't do it for him, he had to decide. But he wouldn't listen. He was in denial, saying he didn't have a problem."

Dennington was told by the judge his habit was no excuse for pulling a knife on a string of shopkeepers.

But the four-year sentence has been criticised by David's own mother.

She said: "It's not enough. Crack addiction is like throwing a pebble into a pond. It ripples out and affects everyone connected to the crack addict - the parents, the children, the people they rob from and their families, the courts, the paramedics and the police."

Published Thursday, June 5, 2003

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