Laura Watson
Court offiicials could not hide their laughter when they heard how a prisoner attempted to steal his doctor's mobile phone by hiding it in his bum.
Ahmed Haden, 28, from Monmouth Road, East Ham, in east London, was serving a three month sentence for assault in Pentonville prison when he tried to take the handset on December 18 last year.
Prosecutor, Nick Hawkins, told the court how Haden had snatched the phone from the doctor's bag and then gone to the toilet in an attempt to conceal it. But when prison guards tackled him the phone fell from his bottom. Haden appeared dismayed as his defence council and the magistrates laughed at the prosecution's account of the incident.
Via a television link from the prison, Haden told Stratford Magistrates Court: "Though I am pleading guilty, I had no intention of depriving him of his phone; I just wanted to make a call."
Haden was given a 12-week sentence and ordered to pay compensation of £100 and costs of £150.
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