The folly of youth: Judge's despair at death of ecstasy girl - as she lets off the boy who supplied drug



Alex Williams sold 'exceptionally' pure MDMA to Martha Fernback, 15



Martha collapsed in an Oxford park and died after taking the substance



Boy, 17, was spared prison after admitting supplying a controlled drug

Judge Mary Jane Mowat said she hoped the case would warn children of the dangers of drug taking

A teenage drug dealer who sold a batch of ecstasy that killed a 15-year-old schoolgirl has been spared prison after a judge despaired at ‘the folly of youth’.

Alex Williams, 17, sold an ‘exceptionally’ pure version of the drug to a friend of GCSE pupil Martha Fernback. Martha died within hours of taking it.

Williams pleaded guilty to supplying ecstasy, but instead of the ten-year jail term he might have received, he was given a three-month curfew and an 18-month youth rehabilitation order.

Sentenced: Alex Williams (left), 17, was spared prison after he sold a fatal dose of MDMA to 15-year-old schoolgirl Martha Fernback (right)



Tragedy: Martha Fernback collapsed and died shortly after taking the 'exceptionally' pure MDMA, sold to her by her friend Williams

A judge heard that Williams, an NVQ student with a previous police warning for cannabis possession, was ‘consumed by overwhelming guilt’.

Martha’s friend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, bought a gram of MDMA, also known as ecstasy, for £40 on July 17 last year. Martha and her friend split it between them. Williams made a £20 profit.

The substance was deadly because it had a purity level of 91 per cent, compared with the average street level of 58.

Oxford Crown Court heard that when he sold the drug, Williams, said: ‘This is new stuff so I’m not sure what it will be like.’

Despair: Sentencing, Judge Mary Jane Mowat expressed her 'incredulity at the folly of youth' who are prepared to take street drugs without knowing the dangers

Martha, a middle-class Oxford schoolgirl, took her fatal dose three days later. After his arrest, police pleaded with Williams to tell them who, if anyone else, he had sold it to so as to prevent more fatalities but he refused to comment.

Martha’s mother, Anne-Marie Cockburn, said she could not remain angry with Williams for the rest of her life and hoped to work with him to try to change people’s minds about legalising and regulating drugs.

Miss Cockburn, who had raised Martha as a single parent since she was a baby, said she does not believe ‘the war on drugs’ in the UK is working and that a more realistic approach is needed.

Sentencing Williams on Monday, Judge Mary Jane Mowat said: ‘There is no escaping the fact that, in part because of your actions, a 15-year-old girl lost her life.

‘I have read a [victim impact] statement from her mother and as the mother of an only child myself in Oxford, every part of me resonates with the despair she describes – and her incredulity at the folly of youth, and of those willing to indulge in street drugs not knowing what is in them, where they came from or what the potential dangers could be.

‘They always know better. Well, maybe this case will go some way towards persuading some children that they don’t.’

Yesterday anti-drugs campaigner Mary Brett reacted with dismay at the sentence. ‘A sentence like that is no deterrent whatsoever, This is dreadful.

‘The policing of drugs is much too soft. It is ludicrous. You need to send a signal that it is not acceptable to deal drugs – a short, sharp shock is what is needed. In this case, a few weeks at least in prison would have been warranted.’



Peter Cuthbertson, director of the Centre for Crime Prevention victims’ charity, added: ‘The lenience of this sentence is out of all proportion to the deadly consequences of the crime committed. It is concerning when claims of guilt are taken at face value and traded in for soft sentences.’

The court heard that three days after she got the ecstasy Martha, from North Oxford, took her share of the drug and went to a park in the city with friends.

Tributes: Mourners lay floral tributes at the scene in Hinksey Park, Oxford, where Martha died

Prosecutor David Povall said Martha had used it before. ‘Martha was saying the drugs were amazing, “It feels like a dream, it’s better than the last time that we did it.”’

Her friends then noticed that Martha was sweating a lot. She said she was going for a swim in a pond to cool down. ‘At that point, Martha collapsed,’ said Mr Povall. ‘Her legs went from underneath her.’

Shortly after arriving at hospital Martha died after suffering a cardiac arrest.

Alistair Grainger, defending Williams, said: ‘There’s not a day goes by when he isn’t thinking about what has happened and is consumed by the overwhelming guilt which flows from the consequences of his actions.’

Williams, who claims on Facebook to be a McDonald’s manager, lives with his mother Alison, 47, and brother Leon, 20, in a £200,000 semi-detached house in the Botley area of Oxford.

Reaching out: Martha's mother Anne-Marie Cockburn, said she would meet Williams and work with him to try to change people's minds about legalising and regulating some drugs

In addition to the curfew and rehabilitation order, he was ordered to undergo drug treatment and to work for charity. Williams, dressed in low-slung tracksuit trousers, declined to comment last night.

Martha’s mother, a 42-year-old marketing consultant, called for a different approach to drugs.

‘Martha was a middle-class girl in a north Oxford school and look what happened,’ she added. ‘That shows what the current drug education and legislation lead to. There has got to be another way, because the current way is not working.’

Miss Cockburn has written a book describing in raw, painful detail the moment she watched her only child die and chronicling her grief since.