A COCAINE dealer who was snared by police trafficking on the streets of Newport, in breach of a suspended jail sentence, is behind bars.

The city’s crown court heard how Courtney Davies has 26 brothers and sisters and came from a “tragic background”.

The 22-year-old, of St Johns Road, Newport, lost his mother when he was aged just eight and his father living in Jamaica “had nothing to do with him”.

Prosecutor Eugene Egan said that Davies had received a 26-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, in February 2017 for battery and a racially aggravated public order offence committed at a fast food outlet.

The court heard how, eight months later, on October 2017, police saw the defendant “acting suspiciously” in Cromwell Road.

Davies was arrested with three mobile phones and a search of his then home in Maindee Parade and his girlfriend’s address led to officers recovering 363 grams of cannabis and 14.3 grams of cocaine along with £1,455 in cash.

He pleaded guilty to possessing class A and class B drugs with intent to supply.

Marian Lewis, mitigating, said of her client: “He comes from a tragic background. His mother died when he was eight years old. He is one of 27 siblings.

“His father is from Jamaica and lives in Jamaica. He has had nothing to do with him throughout his life.

“He last saw him when he was 14. Recently his father contacted him to ask him for money.

“The defendant has had no paternal support and no solid male role model to look up to.”

She said Davies went into care at 15, joined the Army a year later but was soon back in foster care.

The judge, Recorder Sean Bradley, sentenced the defendant to four years in prison and ordered him to pay a £170 victim surcharge upon his release from custody.

Davies will also be subject to a Proceeds of Crime Application.