A KEY witness in the Chillenden hammer murder trial of Michael Stone has been jailed for four years for drug-dealing.

Damien Daley ensured that heroin was flushed away as police raided a drugs den in Folkestone.

Stone was recently granted leave to appeal a second time after his lawyer attacked the “inherent unreliability” of Daley’s claim that the convicted killer confessed to him while on remand in prison.

An Appeal judge was told that the case stood or fell on the confession he claimed Stone, 42, made through a heating pipe in a neighbouring cell in Canterbury Prison.

Stone, from Gillingham, was given three life sentences in July 2001 for the murders of Lin Russell, 45, and her daughter Megan, six, and attempted murder of her other daughter Josie, who suffered severe head injuries, in a country lane in Chillenden, near Canterbury, in July 1996.

There was no forensic evidence and Stone, a former drug addict, maintained that Daley, 28, was lying.

The jury at the drugs trial heard that police had to smash down the door of a flat at Ryland Court, Folkestone, because it had been barricaded from inside.

Paul Cavin, prosecuting, said by the time Daley opened the door a stash of heroin had been flushed down the toilet.

Police quickly checked under manhole covers and retrieved a package containing heroin from the drainage system.

Officers raided the flat on November 4 last year after seeing another man, Kelly Bishop, leave and later throw something over a wall.

Police retrieved 20 packages, each found to contain 20mg of heroin wrapped in torn lottery tickets.

Bishop’s flat in Ryland Court was searched and police then raided a neighbouring flat, where the door was battered many times before it gave way. Officers found a home-made barrier inside.

A number of items connected with drugs was found, including old torn lottery tickets.

Mr Cavin said Daley had been in a position to control the time the police entered the flat.

“One thing is for sure, that entry by the police was at the behest and under the control of one person - Damien Daley,” he said.

Daley, from Folkestone, was convicted of possessing drugs with intent to supply and acquitted of being concerned in supplying drugs. He denied both charges.

Bishop, 33, of Tennyson Place, Folkestone, and Stuart Girt, 25, of Valebrooke Close, Folkestone, admitted their involvement.

Daley, a heroin addict, denied flushing away the heroin or knowing there was heroin in the flat. It was Girt, he said, who flushed it away.

Mr Cavin told him: “You have just lied to this jury. You were in control of the heroin den. You put the brace on the door.”

Daley replied: “Not at all. I have never sold drugs to anyone.”

Daley’s previous convictions included robbery and assault. His last conviction was in September 2002 for obtaining property by deception.

Judge Simpson considered making a order banning publication of any connection between Daley and Stone, but decided not to.

He did, however, make an order that Daley’s full address should not be published in case of reprisals.

Stone’s mother and his sister Barbara watched from the public gallery as Mr Valder made a reference to Daley giving evidence at two of the killer’s trials. He said: “He is someone who on two occasions, perhaps perversely, has shown a very real sense of public duty."

Mr Valder said Daley suffered from dyslexia and was, therefore, regarded as thick at school. He had been in a stable relationship for six years.

“His offending has changed in terms of its tenor,” he said. “It was not of the serious nature it was before he was convicted.”

Mr Valder said Daley had was now clean of drugs after a 10-year addiction.

Peter Forbes, for Bishop, said his client had welcomed custody as it had given him the opportunity to rid himself of drugs.

Judge Keith Simpson told the three: “You all had your parts to play in this course of activity in which you all engaged with a class A drug, namely heroin.

“It is a ferocious substance which you know to your cost that once taken, you generally become addicted to it. It is extremely difficult for that addiction to be broken.”

The judge said there had to be a deterrent element to the sentence to discourage others. All three would be treated the same.

“The court must be as active as it can because of the damage done to so many people in the trafficking of this wretched drug,” he said.

Judge Simpson said Bishop had been “equipped to knock a few packages out on the street” and was an important element in the distribution system.

Girt was given three years for the offence and ordered to serve a further year remaining from a four and a half year sentence for aggravated burglary.

The judge said he had been dealing with numerous cases involving an undercover operation to clean up drugs in Medway.

“A similar problem seems to exist to some extent in the Folkestone area,” he said.