A TEENAGER who was caught drug dealing for the third time told police “I will always go back to what I know”.

Finley Walsh was groomed by drugs gangs from the age when he was just 12 and has been arrested repeatedly while acting as a runner for them on the streets of Exeter.

He was first exposed to alcohol and drugs when he was nine dropped out of mainstream schooling before he reached secondary school.

He then joined a County Lines crime group that used children in care to sell drugs in Exmouth, Crediton, Dawlish, Exeter and North Devon.

The leaders of that group were jailed last year but Walsh, who was still a juvenile, received a Youth Rehabilitation Order and was meant to have been receiving intensive supervision.

He returned to drug dealing after he lost his supported accommodation when he turned 18 and ceased to be under the care of Devon County Council.

He was caught within months but his sentence was deferred to give him a final chance by a judge at Exeter Crown Court.

Walsh was arrested for the final time in April this year while trying to flee from a police raid on a house in Exeter.

He told the arresting officers: “I hope you realise I have nothing to go back to. I will always go back to what I know.”

The arrest made him liable for a mandatory seven year sentence as the “three strikes and you’re out” class A drug dealer, even though he is still only 18.

Judge Stephen Climie decided not to implement that sentence at Exeter Crown Court.

Walsh, of no fixed address, admitted possession of heroin and crack with intent to supply and was jailed for three years.

Judge Climie said Walsh’s background of being groomed by a County Lines gang at a young age meant there were exceptional circumstances which justified not implementing the mandatory sentence.

He said: “Nobody can understate the impact on young people of being exposed to drugs at an early  The psychologist’s report in this case was one of the most depressing things I have ever read.”

Miss Althea Brooks, prosecuting, said Walsh was arrested while running away from a house in Little Barley, Exeter, on April 10 this year and found with £1,500 of heroin and crack which was ready to be sold on the streets.

Miss Rachel Smith, defending, said Walsh had grown in a house where drink and drugs were abused and had been failed by those who looked after him in care and were supposed to support him once he turned 18.

He recalled having to shoplift his uniform for school when he was just 10 and had been left at home for a year after it was recommended that he was taken into care.

He has the reading age of an 11-year-old and has been diagnosed with ADHD.

He became homeless when he turned 18 and built a cabin in his mother’s garden but was thrown out of the house when she turned it into a beauty salon.

He started sofa surfing and was recruited by the same drug dealers as he had worked for previously.

Miss Smith said Walsh is small for his age and looks younger than 18 and spends most of his time in prison alone in his cell because he is afraid of sexual assault.

She said: “He is gift wrapped for sex offenders in prison.”