Jailed Telford murderer tweets about watching porn
A convicted murderer from Telford had a mobile phone smuggled into jail – and took to Twitter to brag about how much pornography he had access to from his prison cell.
Bernard Ampaw, who last year stabbed drug dealer Francis 'Casper' Nsiangangu to death in Brentwood, Essex, began tweeting as 'Samurai Jack' just hours after his sentencing on September 28 this year.
One post even bragged about all the porn the 19-year-old was watching. It read: 'Oh my days, all dese porn sites, I'm gassed (sic).'
The posts have been criticised by the Essex Police and Crime Commissioner Nick Alston, who labelled the situation a "disgrace". He has pledged to write to Justice Secretary Michael Gove.
Mr Alston said: "Even if Casper was involved in drugs, no-one deserves to lose their life. I feel very upset for this family that the person responsible appears to be tweeting from prison. It is a disgrace.
"It undermines the work happening to address the problem. I will be writing to the Ministry of Justice to say we need to work harder to stop this from happening in prison.
"It is not right. We have got to address this problem and we have to do it urgently."
Ampaw, who lived in Wombridge Road before being jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years, had been in Chelmsford Prison, although the Ministry of Justice could not confirm if he was still there.
It is a criminal offence for a prisoner to possess a camera or mobile phone while in jail. The law also states social media accounts must not be updated on behalf of a prisoner by another person.
Emails can be sent to them using a special service but each mail must be printed out and handed to inmates. They cannot reply electronically.
The Prison Service spokeswoman said Ampaw would face punishment for using social media on a mobile phone in jail.
She added: "We took immediate action as soon as this information came to light.
"The police have been notified, the prisoner will face internal disciplinary action, and we have requested the social media account be closed.
"Offenders who are found to be accessing social media in prison will also be stripped of their privileges.
"Mobile phones have no place in our prisons and we have invested in technology to prevent their use.
"But more needs to be done and we will look at new ways of finding and blocking them."
