The ex-boyfriend of a teenager who passed away after swallowing four wraps of cocaine "in a panic" in order to protect him has escaped prison time. 19-year-old Liverpool resident Georgia Cassidy died from cocaine toxicity on Valentine's Day this year, with an inquest into the death recording an accidental death and letting Alan Nolan walk away free.

According to the Daily Mirror, Nolan had dated Cassidy, a beautician, for close to four years. Police officers stopped his Ford Fiesta in Kirkby in Merseyside at 10:06 pm on February 11 but allowed him to leave after both he and Cassidy seemed calm and no signs pointed towards there being drugs in the vehicle.

However, Cassidy had swallowed four out of the nine wraps of cocaine that Nolan had paid a dealer called 'Joey' £150 to purchase. And though she became seriously ill, Nolan went to meet two friends, Mark Guest and Anthony Whitworth, at the Punchbowl pub before deciding to take her to the Aintree Hospital more than an hour later.

At the time of her arrival, she was not breathing and in cardiac arrest. She would not regain consciousness. Her family decided to take her off the life support machine three days later. Authorities then discovered the other five wraps, weighing close to three grams, under the passenger seat of Nolan's vehicle.

A Royal Navy weapons engineer, Nolan appeared at the Liverpool Crown Court after admitting to possession with the intent to supply and was pictured in tears. Speaking in the court, prosecuting Christopher Hopkins said that it was accepted that he had bought the cocaine to share with friends and not to deal.

Hopkins also detailed the events of the day, saying, "He said Georgia asked him what he was going to do with the drugs, at which point she grabbed them and swallowed them. He decided to drive to a pub, quiet and out of the way. Georgia was clearly very ill. He couldn't explain why he didn't call an ambulance."

Nolan's defense attorney, Charles Lander, pointed to the pre-sentence report and implored the judge to spare his client jail time. "Alan Nolan says there is not a day goes by when he doesn't wish he could trade places with Georgia," he said. "He knows his actions in purchasing cocaine on the day led, albeit unintended, to the tragic series of events." Lander also said that Nolan had stopped using cocaine and drinking in a bid "to address his addiction."

"He loved Georgia. He blames himself for what happened," he added. "In his parents' words, he's a broken man and inconsolable. He suffers flashbacks and it's the view of his parents that his mental health has suffered."

Presiding Judge Aubrey said that it was "a day that so many will never forget and a day that will haunt so many for the rest of their lives" and that Cassidy's "tragic and untimely death" was another example of how class A drugs like cocaine "wreck lives."

Aubrey noted that Cassidy had swallowed the wrap in a "panic" to protect Nolan before reading out the ruling. "The court has to remind itself that you have not been found to be directly responsible for Georgia's tragic death," he said. There will always be a doubt at the very least as to the extent and degree of your indirect responsibility for Georgia's death and the manner in which you acted after you had initially been stopped by the police."

Nolan was eventually given 16 months in jail, suspended for 18 months, plus 300 hours of unpaid work.