Annabella Momplé, 46, the former headmistress of Carrington Heights Primary School in Durban, has confessed in a British court to drug smuggling.
|||Annabella Momplé, 46, the former headmistress of Carrington Heights Primary School in Durban, has confessed in a British court to drug smuggling.
Momplé was arrested at Heathrow Airport by UK Border Agency officers on December 3 after six kilograms of cocaine were found in her luggage.
The arrest shocked colleagues, her parents and her brother, journalist Paddy Harper.
A close friend told the Tribune Momplé was “the last person I would have expected to get involved in smuggling dangerous drugs. She adores her teenage son and would not have exposed other young people to danger unless she was in a terrible predicament.”
Momplé was a scholarship student at Durban Girls’ College and went on to study teaching. She is credited with transforming the lives of pupils by taking a personal interest in the family circumstances of each and urging them to aim high.
The headmistress told colleagues she was going to the UK for an educational conference, but it trans-pired after her arrest that she had gone to Sao Paolo, Brazil.
She was apprehended at Heath-row and taken to Bronzefield Prison near the airport.
Serial killer Rose West is among the most notorious prisoners in the large penal facility, which boasts a range of study opportunities and recreational pursuits.
According to Adam Edwards, regional press officer for the UK Border Agency: London and South-East, Momplé was charged with importing a class A substance at her first court appearance in the Uxbridge Magistrate’s Court on December 5.
On February 16 she appeared again in the Isleworth Crown Court in North London, where she was asked to plead to the charges. She conceded she had brought cocaine into the UK concealed in her luggage.
“She is expected to be sentenced on March 15. We will then present a full forensic report, listing the purity and weight of the drugs she is accused of smuggling into the country,” Edwards said.
“UK Border Agency officers are on constant alert to keep out class A drugs and other banned substances. We are determined to prevent this terrible trade, which can have such a destructive impact.”
In October 2011 a British man was jailed for 10 years for trying to smuggle 2kg of high-purity cocaine worth R2.18 million into the country.
Earlier this month, another man was charged with trying to smuggle 2kg of cocaine into the country via Gatwick Airport. Briton Derrick Edwards, 45, was arrested after arriving on a flight from Kingston, Jamaica. - Sunday Tribune