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Dog poisoner gets four extra months in jail for having secret mobile phone in cell

Robert Mullen, 26, from Aberdeen, was serving 13 months in top security Glenochil Prison, Clackmannanshire, when he was found with the device.

Robert Mullen was previously jailed at appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
Robert Mullen was previously jailed at appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.

A boxer serving time for poisoning a dog has had four months added to his sentence for having an illegally-modified mobile phone behind bars.

Robert Mullen, 26, from Aberdeen, was serving 13 months in top security Glenochil Prison, Clackmannanshire, when he was found with the device.

He was serving time for pouring paint stripper through the letterbox of a Bridge of Don couple and inadvertently poisoned their dog.

Mullen flung the toxic liquid over and inside the Aberdeen home resulting in the family pet needing vet treatment after digesting the chemicals.

The 25-year-old carried out the vandalism at a house on Buckie Avenue after he’d “reached the end of his tether” over an unpaid debt, Aberdeen Sheriff Court previously heard.

Unauthorised SIM in mobile

Prosecutor Rachel Wallace told Alloa Sheriff Court that warders had been searching his cell when they noticed him trying to hide something under his bed.

She said: “It was a mobile with an unauthorised SIM card.”

Prisoners in Scottish jails are issued with mobile phones and locked SIM cards, as part of changes introduced during the Covid pandemic.

Outgoing calls made on the jail-issue devices can be monitored, and should only be possible to numbers already included in existing prisoner call lists. The phones are not text or internet-enabled, and are unable to receive incoming calls. The official devices also ration calls to 300 minutes a month.

Extracting the official SIM card and inserting a standard one circumvents some of these restrictions.

Appearing by video link from the jail, Mullen, of Great Northern Road, Aberdeen, pleaded guilty to possessing an illegal personal communication device while in prison – contrary to the 1989 Prisons (Scotland) Act.

The incident occurred on December 26 last year.

‘His own phone had been confiscated’

Solicitor Ruairidh Hood, defending, said: “He was trying to keep in contact with his family over the Christmas period.

“His own phone had been confiscated as a result of his cellmate being involved in another matter.”

Sheriff Neil Bowie jailed Mullen – who had been due for release on May 11 – for a further four months, to be served consecutively.

He told him: “You would be well aware of the rules.”