💊👮 A drug dealer was caught red-handed smuggling cocaine into HMP Cardiff while visiting a friend he’d previously shared a cell with.
Terry Kenton, 56, of Joyce Close, Newport was captured on CCTV handing over a 2.15g wrap of the class A drug to prisoner Mitchell Dyke during a visit on 16 November 2024.
Newport Crown Court heard how the exchange took place whilst Kenton, a woman and Dyke chatted together having refreshments in the visiting area, with the defendant slipping the drugs over to the inmate.
Prison officer Daniel Hampson spotted the exchange and seized the cocaine.
Sali Harmes, prosecuting, told the court: “Aggravating factors in this case are that these drugs were taken into prison and supplied to a known user.”
Kenton, who had 39 convictions for 92 offences, pleaded guilty to supplying a class A drug.
Paul Hewitt, defending, said: “The defendant does have a substantial record but none for drug offences although he is a drug user. He committed this offence out of some kind of misguided loyalty to his friend. The defendant did not do it for any financial gain.”
The barrister added: “He’s done his best to get off drugs. The defendant has a diagnosis of dementia that is possibly linked to his drug taking.”
Judge Carl Harrison told Kenton that smuggling drugs into prison causes havoc and that only an immediate custodial sentence could be justified.
The defendant was jailed for two years and told he would serve half of that term before being released on licence. Kenton will also have to pay a £187 victim surcharge.
At Cardiff Magistrates’ Court last month, Dyke, 29, of Howard Drive, Caerphilly was ordered to pay £205 in a fine and costs after pleading guilty to possession of cocaine.
