A prison officer who used cocaine and gave in to blackmail threats, smuggled "unauthorised packages" into Maghaberry jail, Craigavon Crown Court has heard.
Darrall Scott, 46, a father of two from Winona Lodge, in Donaghcloney, Co Down, was jailed for nine months.
Scott admitted smuggling three packages between December 2008 and May 2009 and possessing cocaine for his own use.
The blackmail began after an inmate discovered Scott was having an affair with another prisoner's wife.
The judge said the "breach of trust" by Scott, a prison officer for 18 years, was so serious he had to be jailed to deter others.
"It seems to me that because of your foolishness of being in an affair with a prisoner's wife, you allowed very significant pressure to be placed on you by an unscrupulous man who threatened to expose you unless you did exactly what he wanted," the judge said.
Harm and trouble
Scott, he said, began to smuggle in palm-sized packs into the jail, and while he had suspected they may have been drugs, he did not know exactly what he was transporting.
The judge said there were a number of mitigating factors, including Scott's genuine remorse and realisation of the harm and trouble he had caused, not only for his family, but for his colleagues.
However, he said Scott's wrong-doing demanded a period of custody, and despite the plea from his lawyer, that sentence could not be suspended.
At an earlier hearing a Crown lawyer said Scott's affair with the wife of an inmate from Magilligan prison became known to a convicted armed robber who ordered him "to bring stuff in".
The lawyer said Scott was told to meet a contact, initially in West Belfast, then twice in Moira, and to bring the package into the prison, which he did by hiding them down the front of his trousers.
- Published9 November 2010
