A beauty therapist who tried to smuggle drugs hidden in a book into prison for her boyfriend has been warned she faces a jail sentence.

Danielle Haylor, 31, had denied she was responsible for the heroin found in the book.

But half way through the trial at Hove Crown Court she changed her plea and admitted she was guilty.

The court had heard Haylor, a mother of one, posted the drugs to Lewes Prison concealed in the spine of a book titled The End Of Time, by Adrian Gilbert.

The package was addressed to her boyfriend at the time, Timothy Cole, who had been jailed for his part in a £50,000 armed raid on a Horsham jewellery store.

The manager of the shop was shot at by an accomplice as he fled the store in September 2005. His life was saved when a bullet hit his mobile phone in his jacket pocket.

Cole, the getaway driver, was jailed for eight years for his part in the robbery.

The book was found by staff in the prison’s mail room in January last year. It contained a wrap of heroin with a street value of £340 but was worth ten times more in jail.

Haylor, of Squirrels Close, Langley Green, Crawley, claimed she was asked by Cole to collect the book from a former inmate and send it to him.

She told police she had no idea that the heroin was hidden inside.

When the prosecution case ended yesterday, Haylor was due to give evidence from the witness box. But instead she changed her plea and admitted attempting to supply a class A drug and illegally possessing Valium.

Judge Anthony Niblett told the jury she had “a change of heart”

and directed she was formally convicted of the offences. The judge told her: “You have had the courage to admit your guilt but you must be under no illusion about what the final outcome will be. This is a serious matter in which a prison sentence almost always follows.”

Haylor was bailed until November 20 for sentence.

Sherry Nabijou, defending, said the reason Haylor found herself in court was because Cole wanted the drugs. She said: “Had it not been for meeting Timothy Cole we would never have seen this defendant in court.”

The court heard Haylor has previous convictions for possessing cannabis.

Cole was due to give evidence on Haylor’s behalf during the case, which was a retrial after the first one was halted for legal reasons earlier this year.