A Bevendean woman who allowed a runaway teenager to hide from police in her bed base has been given a community order.
Cheryl Graddon, 32, of Fitch Drive, was convicted last month of one count of detaining the 15-year-old boy after he was found in his pants under the bed on 28 December last year.
This was just a few days after she had been served a child abduction warning notice preventing her from having the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in her flat.
She had told the court he had been let into her home while she was asleep and when the police knocked that morning she had no idea he was there.
But after seeing body worn camera footage, magistrates decided that the delay in opening the door to officers meant she had been complicit in allowing him to hide.
However, Brighton Magistrates Court dismissed two other charges of detaining a child in the days leading up to December 28 after hearing that on the first occasion, he had been there while she was out and on the second he had turned up uninvited by her while police were there.
During the trial on 23 April, Graddon told the court she had known the boy since October last year and he had often come round to her house where he spent time with his 14-year-old girlfriend.
She also said he and his friends turned up when she was not there, and caused disturbance to her neighbours, so she had told them they could no longer come round.
Last Tuesday, Graddon was ordered to undertake rehabilitation, pay a victim surcharge of £85 and prosecution costs of £625.
An application to deduct the total sum of £710 from her benefits was made.
Graddon, also known as Sheryl Ellison, was previously convicted of drink driving after a crash in which she flipped her car with her nine-year-old son inside.
