A woman will give birth behind bars after being jailed for selling cocaine to an undercover police officer.

Gail St Pierre, 37, who is due to have her sixth child in November, had the drug concealed in her mouth when she met the plain-clothes detective in Eastbourne.

She even warned the officer to be careful during the handover because there were "lots of Old Bill" about, Hove Crown Court heard.

St Pierre, 37, who was arrested in April, has been addicted to the drug for six years and was dealing to feed her habit.

Marcus Fletcher, prosecuting, said St Pierre, of the Rockville Hotel, Bourne Street, Eastbourne, had a previous conviction for passing a knife to her husband to help him escape from custody at Eastbourne Magistrates Court in 1998.

Rosano Scamardella, defending, said: "She is seven months pregnant and for any woman coping with pregnancy and giving birth would be difficult in normal circumstances, let alone within the walls of HMP Holloway."

Judge Richard Kemp told St Pierre to remain sitting in the dock when he jailed her for a total of three years for the two offences.

She wept as he said: "I take into account your condition and the fact that you pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

"However, the seriousness of the drugs offence is such that only a custodial sentence is appropriate.

"You are a mother of five children and an expectant mother of a sixth child.

"You had no control over where the drugs you sold would go. They could ultimately have come into the hands of young children."