A young woman is under lock and key today after hiding the knife her boyfriend used to murder his drug-dealing friend.

Sharna Langston, of Browning Road, Ipswich, was sentenced at Norwich Crown Court to two years in a young offenders’ institution after helping Ryan Bowers.

Last month Bowers, 19, from Ely Way, Thetford, was found guilty of murdering Anthony Adams by stabbing him in the heart and liver in June last year.

The jury also found 20-year-old Langston guilty of assisting an offender after she hid two knives, one of which Bowers had used to stab Mr Adams.

Mr Adams was killed after a row began when Bowers burgled his house and stole three ounces of cannabis. Mr Adams arrived home to find his back door broken and the drugs missing.

After sending increasingly desperate texts begging for the drugs back, Mr Adams went to Bowers’s home and threatened him with a baseball bat. Bowers then retaliated by going to the victim’s home with two knives and a fight broke out.

Mr Adams was stabbed three times and later died in West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds.

Bowers must serve a minimum of 20 years before he is eligible for parole.

At Bowers’ sentencing Judge Peter Jacobs said: “At the time of this offence you were all part of a group leading relatively aimless lives, wandering about smoking spliffs of cannabis.

“Until this, you and Anthony Adams were on good terms. This knife was taken to the house only to be used by you and was used by you.”