AN ADDICT who helped groom a 13-year-old boy and watched while he took cocaine and played with knives has been spared jail.

Maureen Doyle, 59, of Broomfields Court, Pitsea, has been handed a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years after admitting two counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs and possession of criminal property at Basildon Crown Court.

Her accomplice Rahman Hassan, 30, of no fixed address, was previously jailed for three years and nine months.

The court was shown shocking footage from Hassan’s phone showing the 13-year-old waving a knife around.

Hassan could be heard laughing hysterically while bragging about giving the boy “a bump” while Doyle watched on unfazed.

The case came to light after Essex Police executed a warrant at Doyle’s address in October last year.

In the home, officers found a large quantity of drugs and cash as well as Hassan, Doyle and the 13-year-old boy.

Hassan worked as part of a drug gang from London and based himself at Doyle’s address after identifying her as a known and vulnerable drug user whose home he could take over in practice known as cuckooing.

The boy had attempted to dispose of drugs on a neighbouring balcony, but they were later recovered.

In total, police seized 51 wraps of heroin and 79 wraps of crack cocaine worth £1,310.

The boy was not prosecuted after the National Crime Agency determined he had been exploited by the drug gang.

Doyle was spared jail at Basildon Crown Court on Friday where judge Samantha Leigh also ordered her to complete 60 days of rehabilitation and made her subject of a six-month curfew.

The sentence comes as a national report revealed the growing concern over children being groomed by drug gangs.

Research by the Children’s Society found “alarming evidence” of primary school children being targeted by gangs who traffic drugs from urban to rural areas – known as county lines gangs.

The report found that teens aged between 14 and 17 are most likely to be exploited but children of all ages were at risk.

The report also states: “It is in cuckooed properties that young people are often in extremely risky environments, facing risk of physical violence from their exploiters or the drug users who have been cuckooed.”

The Children’s Society is calling on the government to change the Modern Slavery laws to recognise child criminal exploitation that occurs in county lines drug operations where youths are pushed into dealing.