'It highlights the potentially deadly consequences of controlled drugs': Police reaction following death of Hartlepool woman

Police say the death of a Hartlepool woman after her boyfriend injected her with heroin shows the dangers of taking illegal drugs.
Brafferton Street, Hartlepool.Brafferton Street, Hartlepool.
Brafferton Street, Hartlepool.

Hartlepool woman Samantha Archer died after being injected with heroin by her boyfriend Andrew Dean Williams.

Andrew Dean Williams, 48, was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court on Friday, June 7,after he earlier pleaded guilty to manslaughter of Samantha Archer at her Hartlepool home.Andrew Dean Williams, 48, was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court on Friday, June 7,after he earlier pleaded guilty to manslaughter of Samantha Archer at her Hartlepool home.
Andrew Dean Williams, 48, was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court on Friday, June 7,after he earlier pleaded guilty to manslaughter of Samantha Archer at her Hartlepool home.

 

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Miss Archer, 43, was found dead at her home in Brafferton Street, off Duke Street, Hartlepool, on February 10 of last year.

Officers at Cleveland Police have joined the crown court judge, the Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, in describing the case as ‘tragic’.

A leading police officer in the case also said it highlights the potentially deadly consequences of controlled drugs.

Officer in the case, Detective Sergeant Mark Hanson, of Cleveland Police, said: “This is a tragic case that led to Samantha’s untimely death at just 43.

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“Sadly it highlights the potentially deadly consequences of controlled drugs.

“Andrew Williams will have to live with his actions for the rest of his life and Samantha’s family will have to live without her for the rest of their lives.”

Williams, formerly of Hartlepool but now of Benson Street, Middlesbrough, admitted to police he had given her the heroin and along with manslaughter also pleaded guilty to unlawfully administering poison.

Sentencing Williams, the Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, said: "This is undoubtedly a tragic case. You caused the death of somebody you were fond of by your actions and you will live with that  for the rest of your life."