Threatened man takes drugs into prison

Tuesday 05 May 2020

A local man, who claims he was threatened into supplying 1.68g of cannabis to an inmate at Guernsey's prison, has been sentenced to 18 months behind bars himself.

Mark Gill, 45, had been planning to visit a "good friend" at Les Nicolles on 5 June last year, when he received a phone call from a man he described as having a "really nasty scouse voice".

According to the defendant, the caller said he was owed money by Gill's son and ordered that it be paid. However, when Gill explained that he didn't have the cash, the man told him: "well you'll be working for us instead".

Allegedly, the caller threatened to hurt members of Gill's family - breaking their legs and putting them in hospital, if didn't carry out the task. The defendant said he questioned the threats, but the man went on to give precise details of where his loved ones lived, what they were doing at the time and what they were wearing.

"Normally, I would have gone and found them, but I'm too old for that," Gill later told police.

Pictured: The defendant was interviewed by Guernsey Police.

Following the phone call, the defendant stopped off at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital for a short while. During that time, he claims a small package of cannabis resin was left on the wheel of his car - though hospital cctv showed no evidence of this.

Later, Gill went to the prison, where he visited his friend as usual. However, once prison officers had passed, the defendant held out his closed fist and passed the small package to the inmate. He then got up and started to leave.

The transfer was noticed by prison officers, who immediately asked the inmate to open his hand. He did so, revealing the cannabis.

Guernsey Police were called and Gill was arrested that afternoon.

Although he claimed not to know anything about the drugs at first, he did admit his involvement when officers told him the incident had been captured on CCTV.

Pictured: The incident was captured on CCTV.

He was interviewed that day and explained his story to police. His phone was seized and later analysed, but there was no evidence to either back up Gill's account or incriminate him further.

The defendant pleaded guilty before the court in March this year.

In his mitigation, Advocate Paul Lockwood told the court how Gill had "consistently insisted" on his version of events and that there was "nothing remarkable or incoherent" about them.

"The idea that another's safety would be threatened because of drug debt is not fantastical," he said.

Advocate Lockwood read a letter from the defendant's mother, which set out various family struggles and how they have been exacerbated by the corona virus pandemic.

"I do not know how I would be able to cope without Mark," she wrote.

The defence advocate went on to remind the Deputy Bailiff and Jurats how any new entrants into the prison must self isolate for two weeks before being able to take part in daily life. "In other words, they are put in 14 days solitary confinement," Advocate Lockwood said. "We must not pretend this is the same as before."

Pictured: The defendant was sentenced in the Royal Court.

He asked that the defendant be sentenced to a lengthy community service order rather than being sent to prison.

However, Richard McMahon and the Jurats did not agree with that course of action, particularly taking Gill's recent prison sentence for importing cannabis into account.

"Supplying cannabis to a serving prisoner is a very significant aggravating factor," said Mr McMahon. "It doesn't help with the rehabilitation of any prisoner if drugs find themselves into the prison.

"The circumstances do not assist you very much. You know full well that those who pedal drugs prey on others to carry out their dirty work for them. It is up to the individual involved to do what is right.

Gill was sentenced to 18 months in prison for the single offence.

The prisoner involved in the incident said he had been unaware that the transfer was going to take place and was not charged in relation to it.