A JAILED knifeman has had a year added to his sentence after he was caught smuggling cocaine and spice into prison.

Richard Martin was pressured into taking part in the plot to bring the drugs into Channings Wood Prison near Newton Abbot to pay off a debt to another inmate.

He agreed to send a visiting order to a woman who he had never met and to take a package which she tried to pass to him in secret.

The plan failed because warders saw him putting something down his trousers and caught him with the hidden contraband.

Martin was two years into a six year nine month sentence for stabbing a man in Bristol in a jealous rage because he suspected he was seeing his ex-girlfriend.

The new sentence will be added onto the existing term, effectively delaying his release date by six months.

Martin, aged 37, of Ruthven Road, Knowle, Bristol, admitted possession of class A, B and C drugs with intent to supply and was jailed for 12 months by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him: ‘I accept you played a lesser role because you were subject to coercion and pressure. This was an attempt to supply drugs within the prison where their contribution to disorder is well known.

‘Whatever type of drugs you thought was involved doesn’t amount to a hill of beans but you do not have any drug convictions and I am willing to accept you are remorseful.’

Miss Emily Pitts, prosecuting, said officers monitoring visitors on November 23, 2018, became suspicious of a woman who they saw removing a hidden package from her clothing and passing it to Martin, who secreted it in his trousers.

It contained 6.7 grams of cocaine, 25 grams of spice, 81.24 grams of cannabis, and a small amount of a class C drug. Police are still trying to trace the woman after she failed to answer bail.

Mr Joss Ticehurst, defending, said Martin had entered a written basis of plea which said he thought he was only smuggling tobacco and cannabis and knew nothing of the cocaine and spice.

He had been pressured into taking part in the operation because he had built up a large debt through his own use of spice and this was a way of paying it off.

He did not know the woman and had been told to write her name on the visiting order.

Martin was jailed at Bristol Crown Court for stabbing a man who he used to play darts with because he thought he was having sex with his ex-girlfriend.

He arranged to meet victim Simon Purnell but then produced a knife. Mr Purnell tried to run away but tripped and Martin caught up with him and stabbed him once to the right side of his abdomen.

 

He needed to have part of his bowel removed and the medical consequences were described as potentially life-changing.

Martin’s defence counsel, Miss Fiona Elder, said his actions had been ten minutes of madness arising from jealousy and a sense of betrayal.