Caretaker, 45, at £21,000-a-year Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School is jailed for eight years for cutting tens of thousands of pounds of cocaine for crime gang at house INSIDE grounds

  • Justin Terry mixed cocaine with chemicals before pressing it inside on-site lodge
  • The caretaker was total jailed for eight years alongside two other gang members 
  • Martin Walsh, 54, jailed for seven years and Phillip Blackburne, 38, to 10 years 

By Rory Tingle For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

A caretaker at one of the country's most prestigious public schools was today jailed for eight years after he was caught cutting tens of thousands of pounds worth of cocaine for an organised crime gang from his house inside the grounds.

Justin Terry, 45, mixed cocaine with chemicals before pressing it inside his on-site lodge at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, and was found by police with two kilo (2.2lb) blocks of the drug along with £37,000 cash hidden underneath his bed.

Officers also found a hydraulic press, a metal pressing plate and a mould, along with chemicals and cutting agents which he used to prepare batches of cocaine before passing it on to two fellow gangsters, who were also jailed today for a total of 17 years.

Justin Terry (above) - a caretaker at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, in Elstree, Herts, was today jailed for eight years after he was caught cutting tens of thousands of pounds worth of cocaine for an organised crime gang from his house inside the grounds

Justin Terry (above) - a caretaker at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, in Elstree, Herts, was today jailed for eight years after he was caught cutting tens of thousands of pounds worth of cocaine for an organised crime gang from his house inside the grounds

Terry pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply cocaine between August 2019 and November 1 last year. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply amphetamine between the same dates Martin Walsh (pictured), 54, of Watford, admitted identical charges
Phillip Blackburne (pictured), 38, of Hemel Hempstead pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply cocaine and ketamine

Terry pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply cocaine between August 2019 and November 1 last year. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply amphetamine between the same dates Martin Walsh (left), 54, of Watford, admitted identical charges. Phillip Blackburne (right), 38, of Hemel Hempstead pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply cocaine and ketamine

Justin Terry, 45, mixed cocaine with chemicals before pressing it inside his on-site lodge at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School (pictured)

Justin Terry, 45, mixed cocaine with chemicals before pressing it inside his on-site lodge at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School (pictured)  

Haberdashers' Aske's was named Sunday Times Independent School of the Year in 2017 and counts Matt Lucas, David Baddiel, Sacha Baron Cohen and businessman Sir Martin Sorrell among its alumni.

By day Terry was a respected and hardworking member of staff at the school in Elstree, Hertfordshire.

But the caretaker had a darker side and when back at his house would follow a recipe the gang had prepared for preparing the drugs for their onward journeys.

Judge Philip Grey told the court: 'Had a pupil sneaked into that outbuilding the consequences could have been horrific.'

Terry pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply cocaine between August 2019 and November 1 last year. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply amphetamine between the same dates.

Martin Walsh, 54, of Watford, admitted identical charges.

Phillip Blackburne, 38, of Hemel Hempstead pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply cocaine and ketamine.

Police began honing in on the trio in August last year, when they began 'Operation Distant' to target gang members and disrupt their supply network

On October 31 last year Walsh was seen by the police team to drive a van from Hertfordshire to Birkenhead.

There he was observed delivering packages to various people before checking into a Travel Lodge near Liverpool.

Haberdashers' Aske's was named Sunday Times Independent School of the Year in 2017 and counts Matt Lucas, David Baddiel, Sacha Baron Cohen and businessman Sir Martin Sorrell among its alumni

Haberdashers' Aske's was named Sunday Times Independent School of the Year in 2017 and counts Matt Lucas, David Baddiel, Sacha Baron Cohen and businessman Sir Martin Sorrell among its alumni

That evening police raided his room and found two kilo blocks of pressed cocaine and £37,000 in cash hidden under bead.

The van he had driven had a secret hide inside for the storage of drugs.

That same day police raided Terry's home in the grounds of the school where they found a large amount of cocaine, a hydraulic press and chemicals and cutting agents and mixed bowls along with amphetamine.

Blackburne who was higher in the chain of command than Walsh and Terry was arrested in February of this year.

The court was told today the conspiracy that Terry was part of involved taking a one kilo block of high purity cocaine and skimming off 250 grams from it.

The remaining 750 grams would then be adulterated using cutting agents and chemicals which would bulk it back up to its original weight and it would then be pressed back into a block.

Then a small amount of the skimmed cocaine would be used to cover the block so that it could be passed off as being of a higher purity than it actually was.

The court was told those involved in the cutting process and re-pressing of the cocaine involved Terry and Walsh who had visited him at his home in the school grounds to prepare the cocaine.

Passing sentence Judge Grey jailed Terry for eight years; Walsh was jailed for seven years and 8 months and Blackburne was sentenced to 10 years and two months.

A proceeds of crime hearing against the three men will take place next year. 

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