Drugs passed to prisoner during visit
A Perth Prison inmate was seen acting suspiciously after a visit from his son.
And when he was searched, officers discovered two mobile phones and hundreds of pounds worth of cannabis.
Forty-year-old Simon McCormack was to have been freed from the Edinburgh Road jail on February 4, 2022. But he had an extra six months added to that sentence at Perth Sheriff Court.
The accused, who had been given a four-year stretch for assault and robbery, admitted having the banned items in the prison on March 10, 2020.
Depute fiscal Michael Sweeney told the court that McCormack was seen“behaving anxiously”at the end of the visit.
Mr Sweeney said:“He was taken to a search area and a package was discovered between his legs.
“It was retrieved and in it were two small mobile phones.
“There were also 20 grammes of cannabis which would normally have a value of about £200.
“That value could be trebled within the prison, however.”
A solicitor for the accused said he had two convictions at indictment level - one for drugs offences and the second for assault and robbery.
They said:“He accepts he shouldn’t have had these items in his possession. He’s been using cannabis for a number of years prior to his incarceration.”
McCormack’s earliest release was to have been 2022 and the lawyer asked that the inevitable jail term did not interfere with that.
But Sheriff Lindsay Foulis jailed him for a total of six months, to run consecutive to his present sentence.
He said: ”I accept it’s simple possession (of cannabis) but nonetheless it runs contrary to prison regulations.
“Mobile phones in prison also cause all sorts of problems.”