A COUPLE who had just lost a county court custody battle, and seen their child taken into care, decided to console themselves with hard drugs.

But Blackburn magistrates heard their first dabble with drugs was short lived and they were arrested within minutes of buying heroin and crack cocaine.

Jamie Lee, 28, and Stacy Anne Grech, 20, both of Scotland Bank Terrace, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to possessing heroin and Lee also pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine. They were each given a conditional discharge for 12 months and ordered to pay £65 costs.

Eddie Harrison, prosecuting, said a plain clothes officer saw Lee speaking to someone in a car in Grimshaw Park and the couple were stopped and searched after the car had left.

Basharat Ditta, defending, said that on the morning of the offence the couple had been to Blackburn County Court in connection with care proceedings which had gone against them.

"They were distraught by what had happened and thought they could perhaps hide from reality by taking heroin and crack cocaine," said Mr Ditta. "This was their first experimentation with drugs, it was short lived and it will be their last."