Jonathan Turner, Counsel at Argent Chambers, instructed by Ashcotts Solicitors, recently secured the acquittal of B who faced numerous charges of conveying prohibited articles into HMP Walton. The Crown alleged that the Mr B along with two others (who pleaded guilty) was involved in a joint enterprise to supply drugs and mobile phones to inmates of the Prison. The Crown asserted that the prohibited articles were packed into a Lucozade bottle and thrown over the wall of the Prison during an inmate’s football match. The goal keeper then picked up the bottle containing the contraband once it had landed within the Prison grounds. The area both inside and outside of the prison was under police observation and recorded by covert video, the defendant was arrested within five minutes of the bottle being launched over the perimeter wall of the prison driving from the scene and telephone data indicated that the defendant’s phone had been in contact with Prison inmates. Nonetheless, despite the Crown presenting this convincing evidence Counsel secured a unanimous acquittal of the defendant in less than two hours.
