A YOUNG mother sobbed in the dock at Gloucester Crown Court as she recalled the violent boyfriend who, she claims, forced her to smuggle drugs into Gloucester prison.

Michelle Lane, formerly known as Michelle Bullock, aged 21, of Nibley Close, Warndon, Worcester, said her fear of former fianc Frederick Dickson made her take 2.5 grams of cannabis into the jail on January 4.

She denies possessing the drugs with intent to supply.

Asked why she did not just refuse to take drugs to the prison - where Dickson was on remand for rape - a tearful Lane said she was afraid of violence from his family.

"His family knew where I was. They are all the same," she said.

"He asked me to do it. He didn't take no for an answer.

"My impression was if I didn't do it I knew what I would get.

"I had already been to the police when he was not in prison and he had threatened me.

"He's got a very violent nature. I didn't feel it was possible to say no."

Earlier, the court heard how Lane, who has an 18 month-old son by another man, had been assaulted by Dickson when she tried to end their four-month relationship last November.

Punched

"He got very violent," she said. "He punched me and my mother and he said it was his decision to leave me not the other way round."

Following the alleged attack, which happened in Lane's flat in Hereford, she moved to a women's refuge in Worcester.

There, she said, she managed to avoid contact with Dickson for several weeks until a friend gave him her telephone number and he called her from prison.

"He said he want me to take some cannabis in to him," said Lane.

"I said no but he kept persisting. I said I had no money, for the drugs or the trip to Gloucester, but he told me it would be sorted."

Lane claims she was later given the drugs by Dickson's brother, Thomas, to take to him.

She admitted she travelled to Gloucester Prison with her son on January 4, hiding the cannabis up a sleeve of her child's jumper.

A sniffer dog and handler on duty discovered the drugs and Lane was detained until police arrived to arrest her.

She admitted in the interview that she had been carrying the cannabis into the prison for her fianc.

Mark Hollier, prosecuting, told the court that Lane was not under duress to smuggle the drugs and referred to an interview between Det Insp Jonathan Hume and Lane on the day she was arrested.

"Were you under any threat to do this today?" Det Insp Hume had asked Lane.

"No," she replied. "There was no pressure on you to do it?" "No," she said again. The trial continues.