CRIME CARRIES ON
PRISONERS KNOCKED FELLOW INMATE’S TEETH OUT IN THREE-ON-ONE ATTACK
HM Parc Prison.
Rhys Rubbery, 26, of HM Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight, Clinton Cummings, 26, of HM Rye Hill Prison, and Curtis Lewis 22, from Oliphant Circle in Newport, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Three prisoners burst into a fellow inmate’s cell as he was eating and rained down punches and kicks that caused his teeth to fall out. Rubbery, Cummings and Lewis launched the cowardly three-on-one attack on Christopher Bunn on his bed following a dispute about laundry and left him with nasty facial injuries.
Andrew Davies, for Rubbery, said he asked his client why he got involved and he did not really know why. He added: “He accepts he was foolish to involve himself in an argument that was not to do with him.” Sara Palmer, for Cummings, said her client had been in and out of prison since he was 18. She said he had “little recollection” of what happened. Ben Waters, for Lewis, said he had got a job with a biscuit company since being released from prison and was now in a new relationship.
Rubbery was serving a 12-year extended sentence for rape and other offences of violence at the time. He was given an additional eight-month sentence. Cummings was given a 12-month sentence to serve on top of his current sentence. Lewis was given nine months, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and 19 sessions of a thinking skills programme.
Judge Paul Thomas QC said: “This was clearly an organised assault by the three of you on a fellow prisoner. That is a matter which the courts are bound to take a very serious view of indeed.”
A PRISONER ‘PULLED DRUGS OUT OF HIS ANUS AND FORCED CELL MATE TO SWALLOW THEM’
HM Swansea Prison.
Matthew Adams, 28, of no fixed address, and Jamie Wall, 30, of Burnham Avenue in Llanrumney, Cardiff, pleaded guilty to possession of heroin with intent to supply and possession of a synthetic cannabinoid with intent to supply.
Cell mates Adams and Wall were caught with a stash of drugs worth thousands of pounds which they intended to sell to other inmates. Some of the packets of drugs were found by officers during a cell search, while others emerged hours later after being hidden internally by one of the prisoners. It was not known how the heroin and spice – with a value of almost £6,500 – were smuggled into prison in the first place.
Nicholas Gareth Jones, for Wall, said his client maintained it had been a joint enterprise between himself and Adams with some of the drugs intended for their own use and the rest to be supplied to other inmates. Ashanti-Jade Walton, for Adams, said there was no basis to his guilty pleas and he did not seek to use duress as a defence.
Wall was jailed for four and a half years. Adams was jailed for 40 months to run consecutively to the burglary sentence he was already serving.
Judge Keith Thomas said drugs in a custodial environment were a serious problem because they led to a disruption of order in the prison.
A STARTLED PRISONER WAS CAUGHT BY GUARDS USING A MOBILE PHONE ON THE TOILET
HM Parc Prison.
Cameron Jones, 25, from Merthyr Tydfil, admitted possessing a mobile phone in prison.
Jones was startled when officers using a mobile phone detection device abruptly pulled back a curtain and found him sitting on the toilet in his cell with the phone in his hand.
Prosecutor Thomas Stanway said: “The defendant was sitting on the toilet. He dropped the item into the toilet bowl and refused to stand up.” He was removed “with force” from the lavatory. One of the officers removed an L8 Star mobile phone, which was still turned on, from the toilet bowl.
Andrew Davies, defending, said the phone did not belong to his client – he used it once to call his partner following an argument. Prosecutors accepted the phone did not belong to him. He was serving a 45-month sentence for possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply. Judge David Wynn Morgan jailed him for 12 months on top of that. An order was made for the phone to be destroyed.
AN INMATE POURED URINE OVER A PRISON OFFICER’S HEAD IN AN ‘ACT OF REVENGE’
HM Cardiff Prison.
Seth Davies, 35, who did not have a fixed address, admitted administering a noxious substance with intent to injure, aggrieve, or annoy.
Davies poured urine over a guard’s head in an “unimaginably disgusting” incident which saw fluid enter his victim’s eye and mouth. The prisoner, who had a previous conviction for headbutting a fellow inmate in his cell, leaned over railings on the floor above the officer and tipped the urine over him.
Robert Chudleigh, defending, said his client was misusing controlled drugs at the time and described the incident as “an act of revenge”.
Davies was jailed for 12 months on top of the sentence he was already serving. Judge David Wynn Morgan said the offence was “quite clearly premeditated” and described it as “calculated and deliberate”. He added: “Such offences have been described as filthy. It was, on any view, an unimaginably disgusting thing to do.”
A PRISONER ATTACKED A
FELLOW INMATE USING A MUG STUFFED IN A SOCK
In the B-Wing of HM Swansea Prison.
Karl Moreton, 34, of no fixed abode, admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The victim – a qualified barber – was cutting a fellow inmate’s hair in the communal area of the wing when he felt what he described as a “massive blow” to the back of his head. Moreton had fashioned a homemade weapon out of a mug in a sock. The victim had to be taken to hospital because it was feared he was suffering with concussion.
He later said he carried out the attack because the drugs the other man had sold him were “duds”.
He was serving a 10-month sentence at the time for a crime spree in Carmarthen which included him stealing a donation box from a church, shoplifting and assaulting police officers. He was jailed for another 34 weeks.
PRISON OFFICERS FOUND A TINY PHONE HIDDEN IN THE HANDLE OF A KETTLE
HM Cardiff Prison.
Dean Whitehead, 33, who was moved to HM Exeter Prison, admitted possessing a mobile phone in prison.
Prison officers searched his cell and did not find anything on Whitehead, but noticed the handle of the kettle had been tampered with. They found a small mobile phone wrapped in cling film inside.
Whitehead told officers the phone was damaged, but accepted he managed to use it to call his family twice a week as they lived in Manchester, a long way from the prison. Clare Fear, defending, said her client used the phone to make calls at more childfriendly times than he could when using the prison phone.
He was serving a three-year sentence at the time for supplying cocaine, assault, possessing a blade and possessing an offensive weapon. He was punished within the prison by being separated for three weeks and then lost privileges – including television and gym access – for another two weeks. He was due to be released the following month, but was jailed for another year. An order was made for the phone to be destroyed.
A PRISON OFFICER SHARED SEXUALISED CALLS, NOTES AND PHOTOS WITH AN INMATE
HM Parc Prison.
Savannah Dean, 24, from Weig Road in Swansea, admitted misconduct in public office by having an inappropriate relationship with a prisoner.
Prison officer Dean developed an inappropriate relationship with an inmate, which lasted for several weeks, while she was working as his personal officer. The prison authorities were made aware she was becoming “over-friendly” with him and a search of his cell revealed a box containing notes, cards and photographs from the defendant. The court heard their communication was “highly sexualised” with a reference to them kissing and discussing what else they wanted to do.
She attended a voluntary interview and made full admissions, accepting she was going through a difficult time in her personal life and became close to the prisoner. Asked why she did not block his calls she said she was frightened of him, accepted she had “overstepped the mark” and apologised.
Dean resigned from her post. She was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, and ordered to complete 80 hours of unpaid work, plus 14 days of rehabilitation activity. Judge Michael Fitton QC said misconduct in public office was a “very serious matter” and such behaviour “undermines public confidence in the prison system”. He added it was unsettling for other prisoners, who see someone receiving different treatment, and impacts on the work of other prison officers.
AN INMATE PUNCHED AND HEADBUTTED A PRISON OFFICER WHO WAS BRINGING HIM FOOD
HM Parc Prison.
Cory Tomlinson, 30, who was moved to HM Stoke Heath Prison in Shropshire, admitted assaulting an emergency worker.
He tried to push past two guards as they collected his meal tray to bring him food. He then punched one of them in the face, with the force of the blow knocking the prison officer backwards and cutting his lip.
Neil Evans, defending, said the offending happened when Tomlinson stopped receiving medication for mental health problems.
His privileges had already been limited due to bad behaviour and he was not allowed to leave his cell. He was two months away from being released, but was sentenced to another six months behind bars.
Judge Eleri Rees said: “Those who assault prison officers must expect punishment. Such assaults will not be tolerated.”
AN INMATE THREW HOT WATER FROM A KETTLE AT PRISON OFFICERS’ FACES
In the serving area of A-Wing at HM Swansea Prison.
Meshtaq Saunders, 21, who did not have a fixed address, admitted four counts of assaulting an emergency worker.
Saunders was waiting for food, but it ran out and inmates were told fresh supplies would have to be brought from elsewhere in the prison. Saunders became “irate” and had to be carried back to his cell. He then managed to grab a kettle of hot water, which he threw over prison officers. He began waving a mop around and threatening to kill them.
Ashanti-Jade Walton, for Saunders, said her client had spent “most of his teenage years” going in and out of prison and did not want to spend his 20s in the same way.
He was being held on remand at the time after being arrested on suspicion of dealing drugs. He was subsequently jailed for five years and it emerged he had been sent to Wales by a London-based drugs gang. He was jailed for an additional eight months for the offences in prison.
Judge Keith Thomas said it was important there was orderly conduct inside prisons.