Inmates’ threats made prison counsellor smuggle drugs into jail

A PRISON counsellor has been jailed for smuggling drugs after he was threatened by inmates when he scuppered their deals.

Jared Ismail was “coerced and pressured” into taking illegal substances into HMP Rochester, after he told guards that he had seen a package thrown over a wall during one of his sessions at the category C prison.

After reporting the package, Ismail, 29, from Enfield, north London, received sinister telephone calls and messages, including a note which referred to his family and another that said he needed “protection”.

He eventually succumbed to the threats and, during a lunch break outside the prison walls in October 2018, he was given cocaine, cannabis, and three mobile phones to bring in.

It was as he returned to work that he was caught with the 36 grams of skunk cannabis hidden in a drinks container, before a further search found almost seven grams of cocaine and the phones.

Ismail, a former railway engineer who was visiting the prison to provide training to inmates ahead of their release, admitted three offences of conveying prohibited articles into prison.

He was jailed for 20 months at Maidstone Crown Court where Judge Philip Statman described the case as “wholly exceptional” and one of the most “upsetting and tragic” he had dealt with.

Referring to the threats, which even continued after his arrest, he told Ismail: “Those threats led you to embark on a course of conduct you would never have ordinarily taken.”

He said a custodial sentence was inevitable but added: “You are in every way a decent family man and human being.”

David Osborne, defending, said: “This was a man frightened for himself and frightened for his family.” He added that Ismail’s kindness and naivety were exploited by men he was trying to rehabilitate, leading him to a “disastrous decision”.