Man who sold drugs to teen friends is jailed

Wayne Kelly had been convicted of supplying a 13-year-old boy and admitted supplying the drug to two others.

The 38-year-old had also been accused of sexually abusing the boys but, after the re-trial last month, he was acquitted of those allegations.

He had been cleared of raping one of the youngsters at his first trial in March but that jury had been unable to agree verdicts on the other nine sex charges.

It had been claimed that Kelly, now of Dryden Close, Worsley Mesnes, had taken advantage of the teenagers and manipulated them to fulfil his sexual desires and he became their drug dealer.

Iain Simkin, prosecuting, said that Kelly, who was then living in Gidlow Lane, Wigan, began supplying the first boy with cannabis when he was just 13 years old and they used to smoke it together.

He claimed that Kelly sexually abused that boy over a two year period and abused two other boys aged 13 and 14.

Kelly, formerly of Lower St Stephen Street, Gidlow, denied all the sexual allegations and told the jurors that the boys had made them up as they had fallen out with him and his family.

At an earlier hearing, Liverpool Crown Court heard Kelly had begun supplying the youngsters with drugs when they were aged just 13.

One witnesses said that Kelly, who was dressed in camouflage uniform, drove him to his friend’s home.

He admitted he supplied cannabis for Kelly.

“He made it sound desirable. He said to me ‘I’ve done it for years and never been caught’,” the teenager told Liverpool Crown Court.

The court had earlier been told that Kelly frequently sold drugs from the back of his van and convinced teens to deal drugs for him promising that they were unlikely ever to get caught or face action from police.