AN IRISH dancing teacher who turned to crime after entering a relationship with a man she met while teaching has failed to convince a judge her punishment was too severe.
Grainne Marie Cafferkey, 25, of Cromwell Street, Nottingham, was initially jailed for 44 months at Stafford Crown Court on July 27 last year.
She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to convey cannabis, steroids, mobile phones and SIM cards into HMP Nottingham Prison for Dominic Usher – a career criminal Cafferkey met while teaching Irish dancing.
Cafferkey also admitted conspiracy to pervert the course of justice after Usher, 29 of Colman Walk, Nottingham, recruited her to pay off a witness in his own trial.
Usher, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 11-and-a-half years in 2015 for robbery, arson, kidnap, blackmail and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Now a judge in London has rejected Cafferkey’s plea that her 44 month sentence was too harsh.
Mr Justice Spencer told London's Appeal Court Cafferkey had "abandoned a really good career and loving family because she was besotted with Usher".
A psychiatric report said Cafferkey, a qualified dental nurse, had a "rather sheltered upbringing" and had done well at school.
Several family tragedies had left her "vulnerable" and she had ended the relationship with Usher in January 2016, the court heard.
She had expressed genuine remorse, her lawyers said arguing that her jail term was far too tough and should have been "rather less".
But Mr Justice Spencer dismissed her appeal, saying that as an intelligence woman she “must have known the seriousness” of her actions.
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