Prison worker caught with cocaine and heroin avoids jail
by DAVID MEIKLE FOR THE SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL · Mail OnlineA prison worker caught with class A drugs after investigators discovered she was in a relationship with a gangster inmate has avoided jail.
Ashley Malloy worked as a carer at HMP Shotts, Lanarkshire, which houses some of the country’s most notorious criminals.
The 33-year-old was put under investigation after police received a tip-off that she was bringing illicit items into the maximum security facility.
Detectives had information she was in a relationship with inmate John Mack, 37, who was serving a four-year sentence for drug offences.
Malloy’s locker was raided by officers in March last year, and cocaine with a street value of £1,200 and £400 of heroin was discovered in a bag. Mack’s cell was searched and a SIM card was found.
Malloy, of Shotts, and Mack, of Glasgow, appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court where she pleaded guilty to possessing the drugs while he admitted having the illicit SIM card.
Sheriff John Hamilton, KC, ordered Malloy to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work and put her under supervision for a year.
Father-of-three Mack was jailed for four months. The pair had faced allegations of supplying drugs inside HMP Shotts but the claims were dropped by prosecutors.
Ian Scott, defending Malloy, said: ‘She certainly isn’t someone who has come through the criminal ranks.
‘She had been given a package and had put her handbag and other items in her locker, which is not in a secure area of the prison, and she had no interaction with any convicted prisoners during the time she was in possession of these drugs.’
Linda Findlay, defending Mack, said: ‘He had this SIM card to keep in contact with his family.’ Sheriff Hamilton told Malloy: ‘It is significant that it was possession of a substantial amount of heroin and cocaine but you have no record and are somewhat vulnerable and I’m persuaded that it will not need to be a custodial sentence.’
The sheriff said to Mack: ‘Possession of phones in prison is a serious matter and given the circumstances, it being your second time doing it, the custodial threshold has been crossed.’
The Scottish Prison Service said Malloy was employed by an agency and had not worked at the prison since the incident.