Wetherby jail's x-ray machine spotted mobile phone hidden in prisoner's anus

The eye-watering discovery was made by an x-ray machine when Mark Smith was being checked into the Wetherby jail on June 2, having come from HMP Doncaster. He is serving a 21-month sentence imposed in May for affray.

Officers at Wealstun challenged him when the machine flagged up the foreign object, but denied having any items stashed. A second scan was taken and the phone showed up again, and was given another opportunity to remove the phone, but refused. The 42-year-old was then told he would be sent to segregation, so eventually retrieved the phone himself.

It was found to be in working order, but had a flat battery. At Leeds Crown Court He admitted an offence of possessing a prohibited item in prison. Prosecutor Jessica Lister said that he has 26 convictions for 61 offences.

Mitigating, Mahdev Sachdev said: “He expresses his remorse for his actions, he is sorry and that is reflected in his early guilty plea. It was not a smart phone, it was one with simply a key pad, there was no sim card and there was no camera of recording feature. He has not been in any reported trouble since this offence.”

Judge Neil Clark handed him an additional nine months’ jail, to run consecutively to his current sentence. He told him: “You admitted the offence but I don’t suppose you had much choice. You accept it’s serious offending. You went to considerable lengths to conceal the item.”