Former jail officer caught smuggling pills jailed

 A former jail officer who become stuck smuggling tablets into Maghaberry jail committed a "gross breach of believe", a courtroom docket has been advised. Stephen Brian Martin (25) became passed a 32-month sentence after arriving for artwork final one year with packets containing cocaine, cannabis and diazepam tablets stashed in his boots. Martin, from Wellington Park pressure in Moira, Co Down, modified into charged with possession with purpose to supply class A and B capsules and conveying prohibited items right into a prison. He have become detained on August 18 last yr - certainly seven months after he commenced out working as a jail officer. Craigavon Crown court heard that Martin to begin with refused to be patted down, however finally went to a relaxation room block with a colleague and produced packages from his boots. A mobile cellphone belonging to Martin determined out his involvement in drug-dealing inside and outside Maghaberry. telephone calls have been additionally tracked among a prisoner's mom and Martin talking in "coded terms" approximately shifting capsules into the prison. Martin claimed he come to be "below duress" to supply the medication with the useful resource of an inmate who had threatened him. Crown prosecutor Ian Tannahill said Martin, whose father changed right into a outstanding jail officer, need to have acknowledged to alert government about his very very own protection issues however chose as an opportunity to deliver drugs into the prison. In mitigation, defence barrister Mr Coyle said his patron's international had come crashing down on the morning of his detection. He added: "In that second he realised that his profession, the recognition of his family and that of the prison issuer have been indelibly marked. "He have become moreover absolutely aware that his younger career as a jail officer had come to a near." Jailing Martin, pick Patrick Lynch quality controls said: "If the jail carrier were aware about your drug problems, it is exceptionally not going you may have been allowed into it. "As a prison officer, you may have been best too aware of the use and misuse of medicine in terms of endangering colleagues. it's far clean that attacks on jail officers are due to the supply or withdrawal of medication." because of his early accountable plea and easy record, Martin will serve 16 months in jail with the the rest on licence. A spokesperson for the Northern eire jail provider said afterwards: "a few human beings are determined to smuggle tablets into prisons, the Northern ireland jail service is further determined to forestall them. regardless of who this is, wherein there's facts or suspicion of bringing unlawful substances right into a jail, we can encounter that and file the ones people to the police. "We want to thank the PSNI for their help in ultra-current conviction and want it'll act as a deterrent to anyone contemplating such actions." Detective Inspector Keith Gawley said: "This operation is a tremendous instance of the way operating in collaboration with the Northern ireland prison carrier, we are able to disrupt crime and clamp down at the trafficking of illicit drugs into prisons."