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22/07/2008
Jail Without A Cell
Prison officers have prevented the smuggling of a mobile phone in an incident that in terms of prison clichés, really 'takes the cake'.
A prison chaplin at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin city centre was used to unwittingly smuggle a mobile phone concealed in none other than - a birthday cake!
Gardai have interviewed the chaplain, Sister Eithne, but are satisfied that she is innocent and had no idea that a phone was concealed in the cake.
A prisoner serving a two-year sentence for an arson attack made the request for a birthday cake to the jail authorities, which was granted.
A senior Mountjoy official asked Sr Eithne to collect the cake and bring it into the prison where it was scanned under the jail's new x-ray machine.
The machine highlighted the contraband phone, and prison officers confiscated the cake, which is believed to be a jam sponge.
Since the x-ray machines were introduced, the smuggling of drugs and mobile phones into Mountjoy through visitors has ceased and the price of purchasing a phone in the jail has jumped dramatically.
"This is a classic case," one official said last night. "It's like a plot out of an old English film, made in Pinewood studios. But in this case, heavenly intervention was on our side."
The origin of the cake is currently being investigated by gardaí, and the offence carries with it a maximum term of five years.
(DW)
A prison chaplin at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin city centre was used to unwittingly smuggle a mobile phone concealed in none other than - a birthday cake!
Gardai have interviewed the chaplain, Sister Eithne, but are satisfied that she is innocent and had no idea that a phone was concealed in the cake.
A prisoner serving a two-year sentence for an arson attack made the request for a birthday cake to the jail authorities, which was granted.
A senior Mountjoy official asked Sr Eithne to collect the cake and bring it into the prison where it was scanned under the jail's new x-ray machine.
The machine highlighted the contraband phone, and prison officers confiscated the cake, which is believed to be a jam sponge.
Since the x-ray machines were introduced, the smuggling of drugs and mobile phones into Mountjoy through visitors has ceased and the price of purchasing a phone in the jail has jumped dramatically.
"This is a classic case," one official said last night. "It's like a plot out of an old English film, made in Pinewood studios. But in this case, heavenly intervention was on our side."
The origin of the cake is currently being investigated by gardaí, and the offence carries with it a maximum term of five years.
(DW)
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