KILLER’S JAIL VIDEO NASTY
EXCLUSIVE: Security farce as taunts sent from mobile phone
A MURDERER and his pal film themselves in jail on an illegal mobile phone while one threatens: “When I get out you’re going to be terrorised.”
This chilling footage obtained by the Sunday People highlights a new low in prison security.
The convict on the left of our picture is ruthless John “Boy” Ward who is serving a minimum 32 years for arranging the murder of his cousin in a gypsy blood feud.
The leering thug next to him issues the terror threat as the pair – with Ward showing a missing finger – make “gangsta rap” gestures at their banned phone camera.
Bizarrely, a budgie can be seen perched in a cage in a corner of the cell behind them.
Defiance
The bird is a prisoners’ perk which according to experts can help to rehabilitate the most hardened lags.
But it appears to have had little effect on killer Ward and his snarling chum as they make a mockery of jail security.
Their video – broadcast online via WhatsApp – is an alarming glimpse into Britain’s crisis-hit prison system and will pile fresh pressure on Justice Secretary Michael Gove.
It is the latest in a string of illicit videos filmed behind bars which have been exposed by the Sunday People i n recent months.
The security lapse comes as unions warn that our jails have 7,000 fewer prison officers now than in 2010 because of budget cuts despite a record number of prisoners.
The film was made at HMP Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, in defiance of a ban on mobiles.
It raises fresh questions over security at the category B prison where an inmate has been murdered and a guard stabbed in the last two years.
A source said: “It looks like Ward and his mates don’t have a care in the world.
“His victim’s family will be dismayed to see this footage.” Ward, 34, was sentenced to life in 2014 over the shooting of his cousin Thomas Ward, 21, in Stevenage, Herts.
The killing the previous year was part of a 30- year feud between rival families.
A court heard the killer had phoned Thomas in 2011 and told him: “It’s me, your enemy.
Blasted
“I’m going to wait until you are at your happiest, then I’m going to get you.”
Thomas wasn’t even born when the feud began.
But he was blasted in the chest with a shotgun by a gang of masked men who burst into his caravan just days after his daughter was born. Clips of the funeral were shown on Channel 4’ s My Big Fat Gypsy Christening in October 2013.
Ward fled after the killing, sparking an international manhunt.
He went to Denmark and later claimed there was a £100,000 contract on his head. The feud began when Thomas’s father James was held responsible by some family members for the death of a relative, Micky Ward, in a car crash in 1987. Six years later James shot dead Micky’s brother and was jailed for manslaughter. John “Boy” Ward was the younger brother of the two dead men. Det Chief Insp Sharn Basra, who brought Ward to justice, described him as an extremely ruthless, violent and dangerous man. A friend of Thomas’s grieving family told the Sunday People: “This clip is a disgrace. Ward is having a laugh. It is sickening to see him enjoying himself behind bars.
“He shouldn’t be larking around with a budgie. He should be in solitary under proper lock and key.”
Lifers are the only prisoners who have permission to keep budgerigars as pets.
Birds
They are said by experts to help them settle.
Andrew Neilson, of prison charity the Howard League, said: “There are not many budgerigars in prison.
“They have long been used, however, as a way of providing prisoners on very long sentences with a degree of company, an opportunity to feel empathy, and the experience of taking responsibility for the welfare of another living creature.
“While we would not claim there is a direct link between budgerigars and rehabilitation, we fully support the use of these birds in prisons.”
Two years ago it emerged that lifers at HMP Frankland – a category A jail in Durham – were allowed to keep budgies and cockatiels.
They were being kept by 19 convicts including murderers and rapists.
Under Prison Service rules inmates are allowed to keep only one bird per cell.
Those found to be mistreating the birds or not caring for them properly can be charged with an
offence or receive an Incentive and Earned Privileges warning. Last year HMP Swaleside, where Ward is locked up, hit the headlines after inmate Darren Flynn, 46, was knifed 190 times in his cell by two other prisoners over rumours he was a “grass”.
The jail is home to more than 1,100 prisoners serving sentences of four years or more, many of them lifers.
The Sunday People has revealed a string of leaked videos showing the anarchy in our jails.
In January we told how two cons filmed themselves behind bars in a protest at conditions at HMP Bullingdon, Oxon. They branded the jail a “drug- epidemic s*** hole” where violence was rife.
Weeks earlier a convict appearing to overdose on the legal high Spice was filmed by jeering inmates at HMP Onley
in Rugby, Warwicks. And in February we revealed how a bloodthirsty murderer had used his mobile to record a rap song from his cell. The recording by Terngu Agera, who was popular in the rap music world under the name Mover, made a mockery of tight security at Belmarsh, in South East London. We have told how prisons have become flooded with legal highs and documented the shocking rise i n the use of drones to bring in contraband. Just last month we revealed two other crime lords scoffing at the justice system. Heroin kingpin Darren McCash posted smug snaps from his Surrey jail, showing off his muscles and smoking a spliff.
Action
And London cocaine baron Babs Arogundade, 29, posed for social media snaps wearing a £3,000 Rolex and Versace togs in defiance of a strict ban on prison bling.
Last night the j ustice ministry launched a probe after we sent them the video footage of Ward and his pal.
A spokesman said: “This behaviour is totally unacceptable. These offenders are being investigated and may face further disciplinary action. It is a criminal offence to bring a mobile phone into prison and we have measures in place to detect them.
“But we have to look at new ways of blocking mobile phones as well as equipping prison officers with the right tools to tackle this issue.”