Calls for Wales drugs policy review after the murder of 17-year-old Harry Baker
Drugs workers also said the pandemic was making it harder to identify these issues.
The court heard Harry Baker was eventually "ambushed" by a "raiding party" on a street in Barry, where his masked killers and their victim were "jousting" with knives.Harry was then chased for a mile to the docks. Defendants Leon Symons, 23 from Cardiff and a 17-year old who cannot be identified because of his age, targeted Barry as a place where they could expand their trade in heroin and crack cocaine.Raymond Thompson, 48, Ryan Palmer, 34, and Lewis Evans, 62, were all found guilty of manslaughter by a jury at Newport Crown Court.
Jurors were told Leon Symons and his 17-year old co-defendant befriended and stayed in the home of Evans, who was described as a "pitiful" cocaine addict who used drugs to forget his experiences in the Falklands War. "Appointments have been stopped, people aren't coming into treatment services, they're not out on the streets."Ms Henton also said it was harder to "keep an eye" on vulnerable service users."Any change in their physical appearance that might tell us that there's something going on in their home life - and that they're either being pressured or they're being controlled in those acts.