Sir Alan Beith demands probe into prison facebook scandal

Jan 17 2010 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

Teenage Blades, of Luke Crescent, Murton, County Durham was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter.

He was jailed for 12 years with a five-year extended licence for the killing, and a concurrent seven years for the unrelated offence of wounding Richard Dowse with intent.

Now, eight months into his sentence, Blades’ Facebook account has accumulated 258 friends, with the vast majority – 222 – being young women from the North East and the UK.

Since last week’s story three new friends were added to his account, and four were dropped.

Further research showed he commented on a pal’s pic on December 28.

We can’t verify if Blades set up the account himself, or if someone is impersonating him, and the Ministry of Justice have also claimed someone on the outside could be managing his account if they have his log-in details.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice, which covers the UK’s prisons, said prisoners “categorically cannot access Facebook on prison computers”.

However, he conceded it could be possible for a prisoner to use a smuggled mobile phone to access Facebook.

He said: “Mobiles do get into the prisons, we are trying to address this. Prison governors may deploy a range of robust search techniques and security measures to prevent illicit items such as mobile phones reaching prisoners. These include rub down searches on prisoners, visitors and staff.

“Prisons can also make use of metal detectors, X-ray machines, CCTV cameras, search dogs and Body Orifice Security Scanners (BOSS chairs) which can detect metallic items secreted internally.”

Grahame Morris, the Labour Party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Easington, where both Blades and his victim came from, pledged to explore the issue of internet use if he is elected.

He added: “I am frankly amazed at the report in the Sunday Sun that a prisoner convicted of very serious violent offences is apparently permitted to have unsupervised access to the internet and social networking sites such as Facebook.

“I would have thought it was reasonable for the general public and the victim’s families to assume that a key element of the punishment of a term of imprisonment is the loss of liberty and that should include exclusion from cyberspace.”