Judge hits out at 'alarming availability' of drugs at Wrexham prison

Drugs were “valuable currency” within a prison establishments, they led to bullying and violence, and the courts would do all within their power to help stamp it out, said Judge Niclas Parry.

Prisoner Wayne Trevor Thomas, 36, who hid drugs including heroin and cocaine inside another prisoner’s cell, was jailed for three years and nine months after he admitted possessing drugs with intent within HMP Berwyn.

The drugs had a value of £10,000 inside prison.

Mold Crown Court heard that prison officers found the drugs inside the cell of Brett Cowell, back in November 2018, and he took the blame for them during internal discipline proceedings.

But when the police were called in he told the truth, Thomas was questioned, and he told how he had come under pressure from “a firm of Scousers” he had been working for on the outside.

When he was jailed for drugs offences they told him he owed them for the drugs seized by police and he then worked for them on the inside, holding drugs or collecting parcels thrown into prison, explained prosecuting barrister Karl Scholz.

Judge Parry told Thomas, of Poulton-with-Fearnhead near Warrington, that he clearly considered it “quite acceptable” to supply the most harmful drugs for financial gain.

“Drugs of this nature are considered to be such a valuable currency. The value here is more than £10,000.

“The worrying message is that in a prison such as Berwyn the harm caused to the proposed rehabilitation of prisoners and the safety of prisoners and staff by the alarming availability of drugs is something that these courts will do all they can to stop.”

He took into account the defendant’s guilty pleas and his personal vulnerabilities.

Thomas, who had previous convictions for 22 offences, had made full admissions, explained Sarah Griffin, defending.

Her client suffered from depression and anxiety.