An award-winning police officer who plotted to fly drugs, blades and phones into prisons using drones walked out of court today with a suspended sentence – after a judge heard she was still breastfeeding.

Clare Davenport, 52, and her husband Peter King dropped goods estimated at being worth over £1 million to prisoners over prison walls.

Their criminal spree bought them a luxury lifestyle of expensive holidays, private education for their daughter and IVF treatment to realise Davenport's dream of a fourth child.

A court heard earlier this month that that child was conceived as Davenport, who at the time of the conspiracy was a detective constable with Staffordshire Police, awaited trial.

Davenport sobbed in the dock as His Honour Judge Richard Bond told her a sentence of three years imprisonment was 'the least' he could impose, but then turned to the two younger of her four children – aged nine and under one.

The nine-year-old was, he said, a sickly child and 'reliant on you'.

Judge Bond added: 'Your son is under one and he is still being breast fed by you. In mitigation I am told that at the age of 51 you had such an urge to have a child despite already having three children that you deliberately got yourself pregnant through IVF.

'In relation to this issue I have some difficulty in accepting that this state of affairs is totally unconnected to the fact you were facing serious criminal offences.'

Sentencing her to two-years imprisonment, suspended for two years at Birmingham Crown Court, the judge told Davenport: 'Many serving police officers who not only spend many hours stopping crime and protecting the public would have no sympathy for you whatsoever. 

'I don't either. Your behaviour can properly be described as contemptible.'

Davenport, the Staffordshire force's Officer of the Year in 2023, will also have to complete 150 hours of unpaid work in the community withing a period of 12 months, as well as 25 days of rehabilitation activities.

She pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of conspiracy to acquire criminal property on the second day of the gang's trial last August.

The court heard Davenport and King, who are now estranged, and accomplices Mervyn Foster, a career criminal, and former drug counsellor-turned-drone pilot Kent George, sent a total of 27 packages into prisons across the Midlands.

King, 53, who was a former Princes' Trust mentor, was the mastermind of the operation having set up a legitimate and ground-breaking company called Drone Shop.

He pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy to convey banned items into prison and acquiring criminal property on the first day of the trail and was jailed for six years and six months earlier this month.

Foster, who was on licence after serving time for previously smuggling illicit goods into prison, claimed he had been coerced into joining in by threats from Davenport.

The 46-year-old, from Sandwell, West Midlands, was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to convey banned items into prison and acquiring criminal property and jailed for seven years and three months. He had 34 previous convictions for 89 offences dating back to 2002.

George, 63, from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, was convicted of the same three counts and jailed for five years and six months.

He had 19 convictions, mostly for petty offending such as drug possession.

Foster and George were employed to drive the drones close to the prisons, including HMP Gartree in Leicestershire and HMP Onley in Warwickshire, and bring them back once the drops had been completed.

Class A drugs including cocaine, heroin and 82 Ecstasy tablets were amongst the consignments flown in, as well as dozens of mobile phones and sim cards, headphones, memory cards and surgical blades.

Messages between Davenport and her accomplices revealed that she longed to spend her ill-gotten gains on a Rolex watch and a Dior pram.

She had had served for almost 30 years as a detective until retiring in April 2023 before an internal inquiry recommended her dismissal.

Davenport had been due to be sentenced alongside the three men but Judge Bond delayed sentencing her to give himself more time to consider what sentence to give her.

'Different courts could reach different conclusions on this particular matter,' he told her. 'Two weeks ago I would have sent you to custody. During the interim period I have pondered your case on numerous occasions.'

He said he had decided to impose a suspended sentence so as not to deprive her youngest children of their mother, adding: 'It is bad enough that their own father is now serving a significant sentence of imprisonment.'

Detective Sergeant Gareth Askew, of Northamptonshire Police, the lead investigator in the case, said the gang 'sought to exploit technology to undermine the safety and stability of our prison system.'

He said the 'complex' investigation involved a number of agencies and added: 'Let this case send a clear message to anyone thinking of engaging in similar behaviour - we will identify you, we will investigate you, and you will face serious consequences.'

Lord Timpson, Minister for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending, said: 'Criminals who think they can exploit our prisons from the sky should be in no doubt – we will track you down and you will face the full force of the law. 

'Smuggling drugs and weapons into jails doesn't just break the law, it undermines the rehabilitation of prisoners and puts lives at risk. 

'That’s why we are backing our hard-working and diligent staff who help bring these criminals to justice with a £40 million security investment including new anti-drone measures to crack down on contraband entering our prisons.'