AN inmate at Channings Wood prison headbutted a warder after he was caught smuggling in a miniature mobile phone.

Christopher Wakefield clashed heads with the prison officer who was trying to prevent him hiding the phone in his underpants after being challenged during a visit.

A female friend had brought the contraband item to the jail at Denbury, near Newton Abbot, but the exchange was spotted by officers, who intervened to seize it.

Wakefield, aged 37, from Somerset, admitted causing actual bodily harm and possession of a prohibited item in prison and was jailed for ten months, suspended for a year by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him it would not be in the public interest to send him back to jail because the case has taken so long to come to court that Wakefield has finished his sentence, been released, and stayed out of trouble.

Mr Richard Crabb, prosecuting, said Wakefield was serving a 40 month prison sentence for aggravated burglary in November 2017 when a woman visitor tried to smuggle in the miniature phone.

Officers intervened to seize it and there was a struggle in which one of them was hit in the face by Wakefield’s head, causing an injury to his mouth.

Mr Ali Rafati, defending, said Wakefield was bullied into taking part in the smuggling attempt through threats to his family. He had not intended to hurt the officer and the clash of heads was accidental.

He said Wakefield has turned his life around since his release, settling down and starting his own business.

In a separate case, Paul Blundell, aged 33, from Liverpool, admitted eight counts of possessing a banned item in prison and was jailed for six months by Judge Keith Cutler.

The sentence will run alongside an existing one for burglary and will not affect his release date in December.

Mr Tom Faulkner, prosecuting, said phone records showed Blundell used the same contraband phone while at Exeter, Bristol, Highpoint, in Suffolk and Guy’s Marsh in Dorset in 2019.

Miss Judith Cornwall, defending, said there had been an excessive delay in the case which means it would be unfair if Blundell’s sentence was extended.