A Jamaican nurse who was jailed for 14 years in 2002 for smuggling $2 million worth of heroin into the Island, has had her prison term reduced to nine years by the Court of Appeal.

Teartia Laverna Smith, who was 38 at the time she was sentenced, arrived from New York on March 24, 2001 and was stopped and searched by customs.

Police found 339.6 grams of heroin, with a street value of more than $1,833,840 in her panties.

In her appeal to the court in 2002, Smith had said that as a nurse she had administered diamorphine to patients, especially terminally ill patients for more than 15 years, but claimed she did not know diamorphine had any relationship to heroin, or that it was so powerful.

In passing judgment yesterday, Appeals Judge Gerald Nazareth said that Smith was convicted on her own plea of guilty of the importation of 339.6 grams of diamorphine and sentenced to imprisonment for 14 years.

?Having heard counsel, we extended time to enable application for leave to be made, granted such leave and, treating the hearing of the application as that of the appeal, reduced the sentence of 14 to nine years imprisonment, with time spent in custody taken into account,? he said. Mr. Justice Nazareth said Smith cooperated fully with Police, implicating two men who arrived on the same flight.

Her information led to her and the two men being charged on four counts ? conspiracy to import a controlled drug, diamorphine; importation of a controlled drug into Bermuda; possession of a controlled drug and handling a controlled drug with intent to supply.

?As mentioned, she pleaded to the second charge and was duly sentenced. Later one of the men, Rudolph Pusey, reversed his original plea of not guilty to guilty and also pleaded to importing a controlled drug. He was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. The second man, Andrew Hall, was released on a technicality and disappeared from Bermuda before he could be re-charged,? he said.

Mr. Justice Nazareth added that it was suggested that Hall fled the jurisdiction on a private jet.

?The 339.6 grams of diamorphine would have yielded 91,692 decks, with an approximate street value of $1,833,840 if sold on the streets of Bermuda. In sentencing the applicant (Smith), the then Chief Justice said that he had taken into account her plea of guilty, the assistance given to Police, her expression of contrition and other factors argued by the accused and her counsel in mitigation,? he said. He said the Chief Justice had observed that the proper sentence for the quantity of drug was imprisonment in the range of 18-20 years.

The accused, he said, was entitled to discounts for her ready admission, the assistance she gave and the promise of further assistance at the trial of the co-accused.

?In sentencing her to the term of 14 years imprisonment, he ordered time spent in custody to be taken into account.?

However, Smith?s unwillingness to give evidence against Hall after he fled the Island, cost her her discount. But yesterday Mr. Justice Nazareth said it was clear Smith was alarmed by Hall?s escape and feared for her family in the US and Jamaica once he was on the loose.

?In the circumstances, this single understandable failure cannot be regarded as significantly detracting from her otherwise sustained assistance to Police. There were also other mitigating circumstances in that her drugs conviction would prevent her from resuming residence in the United States, where she earned her living and had three children.?

?It followed, therefore, that it was right that the applicant be granted extension of time to apply for leave to appeal to this count, leave to appeal and a reduction of her sentence from 14 years imprisonment to nine years imprisonment,? Justice Nazareth said.