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| Herbie Hide jailed for conspiracy to supply cocaine | Herbie Hide jailed for conspiracy to supply cocaine |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Former world champion boxer Herbie Hide has been jailed for 22 months after admitting selling cocaine. | Former world champion boxer Herbie Hide has been jailed for 22 months after admitting selling cocaine. |
| Hide, 42, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine last month after he was filmed by undercover Sun on Sunday reporters setting up a drug deal. | Hide, 42, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine last month after he was filmed by undercover Sun on Sunday reporters setting up a drug deal. |
| Judge Mark Lucraft told Cambridge Crown Court he had reduced the sentence partly because of the "sting element". | Judge Mark Lucraft told Cambridge Crown Court he had reduced the sentence partly because of the "sting element". |
| Ben Sharman, 22, of Howe Lane, Poringland, Norfolk, was also jailed for 20 months for drugs offences. | Ben Sharman, 22, of Howe Lane, Poringland, Norfolk, was also jailed for 20 months for drugs offences. |
| 'A pubescent boy' | |
| Sharman admitted conspiracy to supply the Class A drug, two counts of offering to supply drugs and an unrelated burglary. | Sharman admitted conspiracy to supply the Class A drug, two counts of offering to supply drugs and an unrelated burglary. |
| During the sentencing hearing, defence lawyers questioned the use of "entrapment" tactics to target Hide, of Bawburgh, near Norwich | During the sentencing hearing, defence lawyers questioned the use of "entrapment" tactics to target Hide, of Bawburgh, near Norwich |
| Martin Budworth, mitigating for Hide, said Sun reporter Mazher Mahmood and his assistant had pursued his client "relentlessly" despite his attempts to remove himself from the encounter. | Martin Budworth, mitigating for Hide, said Sun reporter Mazher Mahmood and his assistant had pursued his client "relentlessly" despite his attempts to remove himself from the encounter. |
| A friend of Hide described him in a statement read to court as a "pubescent boy in a grown man's body". | |
| "I hesitate to say this, but it is a case of Jekyll and Hyde," said Mr Budworth. | |
| "Far from his public persona, he is a shy man and a vulnerable man and was ripe for the picking by experienced and professional men like Mr Mahmood. | |
| "I'm not here to criticise the paper for its conduct but this is not a case where the Sun has in any way unearthed a massive conspiracy." | |
| Mr Budworth said it was "not a case of crime fighting or exposing a criminal, this was a case of selling newspapers". | |
| "If anybody instigated this offence, it was Mr Mahmood and his assistant," he added. |