A 23-year-old prisoner with 85 offences to his name acuired a contraband phone to call home – after he learned a friend had been stabbed to death.

Swindon man Lee Mapstone was serving time in HMP Bullingdon, near Bicester, in February when officers seized the miniature L8STAR mobile phone.

On Monday (August 21), his brief Emma Richards told Oxford Crown Court that her client had learned that a ‘very good friend’ had been stabbed to death.

Having received this ‘awful news’, Ms Richards said, ‘he was offered the phone and in a moment of madness accepted it so he could contact his family for support’.

The phone was not used to commit further crime, only to contact his family members and his girlfriend.

Swindon Advertiser: Judge Nigel DalyJudge Nigel Daly (Image: Oxford Mail)

Mapstone, of Willows Avenue, Swindon, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court earlier this month to possession of the prohibited item in prison and was remanded in custody. He has 44 previous convictions for some 85 offences.

Judge Nigel Daly adjourned sentencing for the preparation of pre-sentence reports from the probation service and for enquiries to be made about whether the bearded defendant could be curfewed to his mum’s home.

Ordinarily, the offence would attract a prison sentence of around six or eight months, he told the defendant.

Mapstone was remanded in custody until the sentencing hearing on September 11.