Killer Tony Blades has facebook page account removed

Feb 28 2010 by Phil Doherty, Sunday Sun

Mr Blakelock added: “The authorities should also be looking into how these phones are getting into prison in the first place.

“That hundreds of phones are seized in jail every month shows what a joke the security is in prisons.

“If someone is found guilty of a serious crime, then when they are being sentenced networking sites such as Bebo and Facebook should take their accounts down immediately.”

During Blades’ Newcastle Crown Court trial last year, the jury heard he had goaded Anthony out onto the street in Murton, County Durham, in September 2008.

In the following confrontation he stabbed the former soldier twice, once in the heart.

The court also heard Blades was on bail at the time for stabbing Richard Dowse in the arm after smashing his car window to get at him.

Cleared of murder, but found guilty of manslaughter, he was jailed for 12 years for Mr Blakelock’s death and given a concurrent seven years for wounding Mr Dowse.

Following our exposure of Blades’ apparent use of Facebook, Justice Minister Jack Straw announced the Government would be looking at new measures to stop convicts accessing the web from inside jail.

As part of these measures, Facebook agreed to remove the accounts of prisoners who claimed someone else was updating their sites, a breach of its rules.

A Facebook spokeswoman said: “We have a policy with the Ministry of Justice to take down any account of prisoners who use the site to intimidate witnesses and victims, those that breach our rules, or any account where someone else is accessing and posting on it.”

However, she added: “We don’t judge people because they are in prison as long as our site is being used in right way.”