Jaafar Ghazi, a rapist serving time at HMP Isle of Wight, has been handed an additional 21-month prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to concealing mobile phones, as well as making and carrying weapons inside the prison.
The 21-year-old, who was moved to HMP Isle of Wight in May this year, pleaded guilty to possessing a mobile phone inside a prison as well as 2 counts of possessing an unauthorised knife or offensive weapon inside a prison, namely homemade shivs
Prosecuting, Tim Devlin addressed the court and Judge William Ashworth, saying that when Ghazi was moved to the Island, his belongings were checked, where officers found a mobile phone and a Lebara SIM card packaged inside a radio box.
After Ghazi had settled into the prison, on 10th July officers were carrying out cell checks where they located a homemade shiv underneath Ghazi’s mattress.
Mr Devlin told the court how the defendant had threaded a screw into the lid of a deodorant stick and had intentionally wrapped the prohibited item in bedding in an effort for it to go unnoticed.
Finally, on 19th July, just 9 days after the initial seizure of a weapon from his cell, prison staff received information that Ghazi was in possession of yet another weapon.
Officers searched Ghazi, who is currently serving 5 years for rape, and found a sharpened prison-allocated knife in his pocket. The young defendant told officers he was going to use it to chop onions; however, at the time, no cooking was taking place.
Defending his client, Nate Lara told Judge Ashworth that his client presents himself as an intelligent and reasonable young man. Despite this, Mr Lara admitted that his client, who was handcuffed to a guard in the dock, is a very reactive young man who is ‘perfectly fine’ until something goes wrong.
Addressing the defendant, Judge Ashworth said the fact that 2 offensive weapons were found over the course of 9 days was very concerning.
Jaafar Ghazi was sentenced to 21 months’ imprisonment for the 2 weapons offences, to be served consecutively with his existing term for rape, and 6 months to be served concurrently for the mobile phone offence.
