Exeter courier who hid drugs in rectum is jailed
A drugs courier who was stabbed 15 times was then found to have secreted drugs worth £3,000 in his rectum.
Connor Cain, of Poplar Road, Herne Hill, London, admitted possessing class A drugs with intent to supply.
A CT scan revealed the drugs package "shaped like a potato" in his rectum after doctors had worked to stem the bleeding from knife wounds to his legs and abdomen.
Cain was jailed three years and six months by Recorder Mr John Williams.
Exeter Crown Court heard Cain only survived because the attack in the centre of the city was close enough to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital that doctors were able to stem the flow of blood and save him.
Mr Nigel Wraith, prosecuting, said ambulance paramedics were called to a flat in Lower Summerlands, Exeter, in April and found Cain with multiple knife wounds.
Mr Wraith said: "During the course of medical examination a CT scan revealed a package secreted in his rectum which was removed by a medical procedure and measured four by two inches. It was shaped like a potato."
The package contained 156 wraps in all, 95 with street value of £1,900 and 61 of heroin with value of £1,220.
The court heard Cain was already on a suspended sentence for dealing in cocaine.
Recorder Williams said: "You had the drugs inside your body when you were subjected to a horrifying attack in which you received life threatening wounds and were fortunate to have survived, no doubt as a result of the efforts of the doctors and paramedics."
The court heard police are still hunting Cain's attackers and investigating whether the stabbing was linked to the activities of rival London gangs on the streets of Exeter.