Cell Phone | 

Prisoner found with mobile phone and Xanax tablets hidden in his boxers

Today at 06:37

A prisoner found with a small mobile phone following a cell search by prison officers was using it to contact his ­family, a court heard.

Jonathan Farrelly (35) was also found with 20 blue alprazolam, or Xanax, tablets hidden in his underwear.

Judge David McHugh fined Farrelly €100 and imposed a one-month sentence, consecutive to a jail term he is already serving.

The defendant, of The Square in Lucan, admitted possession of alprazolam tablets and a mobile phone at Wheatfield Prison in Clondalkin on March 18, 2020.

Garda Cormac Lavin told Blanchardstown District Court the items were found during a cell search, and Farrelly did not cause any difficulties for prison officers.

Defence solicitor Simon Fleming said that Farrelly had been in prison for some time and was not due for release until November 2025.

He is currently serving a prison sentence for his role in a violent forced eviction of a family who have since gone into the witness protection programme.

Mr Fleming said Farrelly missed his family, and had missed many family occasions. His mother was in court, he said, and she had a mass card for him for a relative who had died, he said.