Smuggling cell phones into secure areas can be a problem for security at prisons as well as in boardrooms or other confidential meetings. Perpetrators can go to great lengths to get access for the contraband items. An inmate in a prison in Perth received a loaf of bread that had been carved out to conceal a cell phone inside. Contact us if you need help preventing cell phones or other recording devices from entering your secure facilities.
from the Evening Telegraph, UK, 4/15/2015
Phone found in loaf as killer’s Perth Prison cell searched
A mobile phone was found in a loaf of bread within the cell of prisoner who murdered a woman from Montrose.
Several slices of Kingsmill had been carefully carved to store the device in Douglas Matthewson’s cell at maximum security Perth Prison.
Matthewson — who was jailed for life in 1982 for murdering beauty queen Audrey Williams in the town — had his cell raided after prison staff got a tip-off about the loaf phone.
But it was ruled there was no case to answer, as it was possible Matthewson did not know the device was there.
Prison officer John Fyfe, 53, told Perth Sheriff Court: “We were looking for a mobile phone. We were informed it was going to be in a loaf of bread.
“It was a sliced loaf. You don’t get crusty loaves in jail, I’m afraid. The bread had been cut to the shape of the phone. It had been nicely done.”
Prison catering officer Douglas Blair, 50, said: “I had a hand-held metal detector. There was a packet of bread and it beeped when I ran the wand over it.
“It had been partially eaten, but there was still quite a lot of bread in the bag.
“The seal had been put back. I opened it. Going through it, I found the phone. Individual bits of bread had been cut in the middle to leave a square and the phone was sitting halfway inside the loaf.”
The court was told that the loaf was one of several brought to the hall for prisoners to help themselves to for making toast.
Sheriff William Wood said: “At the extreme end, he could be the victim of a plot, where he is given the bread, is induced to take the loaf and it ends up in his cell, which is then searched.
“The Crown are in some difficulty with proving that you knew a phone was in this particular loaf of bread.
“It may be that there was some other reason for the phone being in the loaf of bread you had in your possession.
“The Crown are under an obligation to prove you had knowledge. Both of the prison officers said it was possible that you wouldn’t have known it was there.”
The sheriff allowed Matthewson’s no case to answer submission and formally found him not guilty of having the phone inside Perth Prison on November 13 2013.
