A CHANNINGS Wood inmate has had his sentence extended after he was bullied into smuggling drugs into the prison.

Christopher Emery was seen by officers who were monitoring the visiting area taking a package which was hidden in a female friend’s bra strap when he was pretending to hug her.

He tried to hide it down his trousers but was taken to a search area where the ten centimetre tube was recovered before he could insert it into his body.

He agreed to take part in the smuggling attempt because he had become addicted to the mind-bending drug up Spice and run up huge debts to others inmates who supplied it.

The package contained cocaine, spice, and three other party drugs with a total value of £6,500 inside prison.

Emery, aged 41, from Clevedon, Somerset, admitted possession of class A, B and C drugs with intent to supply and was jailed for 16 months by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

He is currently serving an 11 year sentence for robbery imposed at Bristol Crown Court in 2018 and will serve the new sentence after it finishes.

Courier Charmaine Brooks, aged 40, of Bristol, admitted the same charges and was jailed for 16 months, suspended for two years, and ordered to receive drug rehabilitation.

The judge said he was taking into account the delay of almost three years in dealing with the case and the fact that Brooks has spent nine weeks in custody.

Mr Brian Fitzherbert, prosecuting, said Emery sent Brooks a visiting order and she went to Channings Wood, near Newton Abbot, on August 25, 2019. She was patted down and signed a form declaring she was not carrying contraband.

Officers monitoring the visit became suspicious when she put her hand up her cardigan and then took it out again. They detained Emery when he hugged Brooks and put his hands inside the back of her cardigan.

He was compliant at first but then struggled when officers removed his trousers and they prevented him inserting a tube with measured 20 by three centimetres up his anus.

Brooks was stopped as she tried to leave the prison but refused to wait for police to arrive and was arrested later.

Mr Thomas Faulkner, for Brooks, said he racked up a drug debt while in prison and agreed to receive the package as a way of paying it off.

He has already suffered serious consequences because he has been moved to Brixton Prison in London which is too far away for his family from Clevedon to visit him.

Mr Simon Burns, for Emery, said she was a heavy user of drugs at the time whose home in Bristol had been ’cuckooed’ by dealers.

She was asked to visit Emery in prison and then pressured into taking the drugs the next time she went. She was not due to receive any monetary payment for the trip.

BY DEVON REPORTER