Man jailed for eight months after being caught with mobile phone during two-week stint in prison

[dutchman]

A Leamington man who was caught with a phone in his prison cell so he could keep in touch with his pregnant girlfriend will now be away from her for much longer.

At the time Daniel Murphy was facing just two weeks inside after being recalled to prison to serve the outstanding period of a short sentence for breaching a court order.

Now Murphy, 29, of Gordon Court, Leamington, has been jailed for eight months after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to having a ‘specified item’ in HMP Hewell.

Prosecutor Kevin Saunders said that on December 2 last year Murphy, who had been recalled to prison, was in his cell at HMP Hewell when a prison officer came in to conduct a search.

Murphy was told to remove his top – and when he did so the officer saw a small mobile phone sticking out of the waistband of his bottoms.

And when he was released nine days later, plain-clothed police officers were waiting outside the jail to arrest him.

When he was interviewed about it, Murphy denied a search had taken place and denied having been in possession of a phone, claiming the prison officer was fabricating it.

Sentencing Murphy, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC told him: “You were sentenced for breach of a domestic violence prevention order. You came out and were on licence when you were accused of another offence which meant you were remanded in custody.

“You went to HMP Hewell, and you had a phone with you.

“When you were arrested on your release you chose to tell manifest lies and said the prison officer was lying. That was very foolish indeed.

“Your offence is a serious matter. There are a large number of phones in prison, and many are used by people in the prison system for criminal purposes. They undermine prison discipline.

“I don’t say you did that, but that is the effect of the possession of a phone in a prison. You only need to lend it to your cellmate for that to happen.

“I am told your girlfriend was pregnant and you were concerned and possessed the phone in those circumstances.

“But you knew well what the rules of custody are, and you were someone who knew well what you should and should not have been doing.”