Inmate planted hoax explosive device at jail as ‘joke’

A NOTTINGHAMSHIRE prison was put in lockdown for hours when one of the prisoners placed a hoax improvised bomb in the exercise yard of its segregation unit.

Nottingham Crown Court heard how convicted arsonist Mathew Lea left the plastic bottle fitted with wires and white powder under a door after he had covered a CCTV camera lens with tissue paper.

Police and the bomb squad had to be called out to check whether or not it was real, but not before all of the prisoners inside Lowdham Grange were locked in their cells.

Then, after being moved to HMP Wakefield, the 23-year-old was found to have an SD card which had terrorist propaganda videos on it.

Jailing him for 20 months, Judge Rosalind Coe KC said: “It was your actions which caused the segregation unit to have to be evacuated and the police and bomb disposal experts to have to be called out and caused a huge amount of disruption to the prison. Whether it was a joke or otherwise, you clearly intended for people to believe it might be an explosive device. The SD card contained Isis propaganda and Taliban material and whether or not you had a particular interest in radicalisation that the material contained that is an aggravating feature.”

Laura Pitman, prosecuting, said Lea was moved from HMP Dovegate to HMP Lowdham Grange in 2022 after concerns were raised about his apparent interest in terrorism. The incident with the hoax device was on July 4 that year.

Miss Pitman said after being moved to HMP Wakefield, in December 2022, a routine search of the defendant found the SD card which he later claimed he had “not even watched” and which contained the terrorism videos. Lea, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited item inside prison and placing an article with intent to cause fear of violence.

Shahida Begum, mitigating, said: “He was very, very, silly and immature and when he was spoken to by the prison staff he told them it was a joke.”