A man caught drug dealing told a series of "fairy tales" to the authorities to try to get a lesser sentence, a court has heard. Braden Horton claimed that he had been held captive in a caravan and forced into the drugs trade, that a former partner had sent incriminating text messages, that his mother was terminally ill, and that his brother had been murdered in front of him as part of a drugs feud. None of these assertions turned out to be true.
Arrest and evidence
Sending the 22-year-old to prison, a judge at Swansea Crown Court told him: "In short, Mr Horton, I cannot accept a word you say". Ryan Bowen, prosecuting, told the court that Horton came to the attention of police in March this year after the arrest of a man called Tony Pike in connection with drug supply offences, and the seizure of his phone. After coming across drug messages between Pike and Horton, officers went to the defendant's house in Port Talbot where they were let in by his mother.
The court heard that police found Horton in bed and arrested him on suspicion of being involved in the supply of drugs. As the defendant got dressed he told the officers he "used to sell with Frosty" but had stopped, and was now "turning his life around". The prosecutor said Horton's phone was examined and officers found messages sent from the device offering a range of different cannabis strains for sale under the heading "Mo's Tavern Menu" including "blue cheese" and "lemon cherry gelato".
False claims in interview
Other messages recovered from the device showed psilocybin - the active ingredient in magic mushrooms and a Class A drug in the UK - being offered for sale, and officers also found bulk text messages had been sent to multiple contacts advertising "snow", a common street term for cocaine. In his interview Horton told police he had been held captive in a caravan and forced to sell drugs by "Frosty and Kev" with threats of violence, and he then blamed a former partner for sending the "Mo's Tavern" messages.
Braden Horton, now of Bond Street, Sandfields, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine, being concerned in the supply of psilocybin, and being concerned in the supply of cannabis when he returned to the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions. The court heard that while being interviewed for his pre-sentence report, Horton maintained the caravan captive story and also told the probation officer that his mother was terminally ill, and that he had witnessed his brother's murder. However, checks directed by a judge showed none of these things to be true.
Mitigation and sentence
Megan Williams, for Horton, said they were her instructions that the defendant had believed his mother to be terminally ill at the time he made the assertion, though now accepts that is not the case. She said Horton does still believe his brother was murdered despite the findings of an inquest into the death that it was accidental drowning. The barrister said Horton "grew up in an environment where substance misuse was part of normal life in the family home" and with a father who was "in and out of custody during his childhood". She said the defendant experienced a "disrupted education" but went on to work in a commercial kitchen and start training to be a chef. However, she said the breakdown of a long-term relationship at the end of 2025 led to her client's substance misuse "spiralling".
Judge Paul Thomas KC told Horton his drug dealing had not been a "street corner, casual operation" but a "well-organised" business lasting some six months and offering a range of different drugs and strains for sale. He said following his arrest the defendant had told "a series of fairy tales" designed to try to influence the ultimate sentence he received, from claiming to have been locked in a caravan and forced to sell drugs through to having a mother in the final stages of her life, and to having seen his brother being murdered in front of him in an incident connected to the drugs trade. Addressing the man in the dock, Judge Thomas said: "In short, Mr Horton, I cannot accept a word you say".
The judge said in the light of the way the defendant had tried to "manipulate" the author of the pre-sentence report, he did not consider there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation at the present time. With one-third discounts for his guilty pleas Horton was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He will serve up to 40 per cent of the sentence in prison before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
