A convicted killer landed himself back in court yesterday for smuggling a mobile phone into jail – so he could talk to his sick grandmother.
Alan Dewar appeared at Peterhead Sheriff Court charged with bringing the device into HMP Grampian earlier this year.
Prison officers found the phone when it fell out of his clothes, along with a charger, during a search on May 17.
Dewar is serving a life sentence for murdering Inverness teenager Joshua Mitchell in a drink and drugs-fuelled rage in 2007.
The 26-year-old stabbed his neighbour Joshua, 17, who had learning difficulties, through the heart because he was in the “wrong place at the wrong time”.
He was locked up for a minimum of 13 years, but in 2010 had 32 months added to his sentence for attacking a fellow convict with a pool cue over an unpaid debt.
Yesterday, Dewar represented himself when he landed back in the dock.
He told the court he had only smuggled the device into prison because his grandmother had fallen ill. She later died.
He told Sheriff William Taylor: “I’m serving a life sentence.
“I’m not eligible for parole until 2023 – that was my only way of gaining contact with her.
“I’ve spent nine years in prison and this is the first time I’ve been found with a mobile phone.”
When the prison officers found the phone, Dewar was put into solitary for nine weeks and lost all of his privileges, including watching television.
Reflecting on that period, he urged Sheriff Taylor to be lenient.
He said: “I’ve been punished enough for this.”
Sheriff Taylor – who served as senior counsel for Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi from May 2000 to January 2001, and during his subsequent appeal in January to March 2002 – agreed, and said Dewar had already been punished “quite severely”.
Admonishing him, the sheriff added: “An individual shouldn’t be punished for the same thing twice.
“The courts take a very serious view of telephones being secreted into prison.
“Ordinarily you would get a consecutive sentence.”
Leaving the dock under a security escort to return to HMP Grampian, Dewar said: “Thanks very much.”
Before the fatal attack against Joshua, Dewar had served a jail term for having a knife and had also been convicted of assault in 2008.
He had only been out of custody a week prior to the stabbing.
At the time, the Mitchell family had campaigned for a tougher sentence for Dewar, who had two years knocked off his earliest parole because of his guilty plea.
Joshua’s dad, Andrew Mitchell, described the crime as “barbaric”, while his mother Marilyn said his death had “ripped the heart” out of her.
Just 24 hours after Dewar was sentenced for the murder, his victim’s girlfriend gave birth to his baby and named him Joshua.
Earlier yesterday, Sheriff Taylor branded phones being smuggled into prison as “an absolute menace” when sentencing Dewar’s fellow inmate, 26-year-old Dean Brennan.
Brennan, who was due for release from HMP Grampian next week, was handed a three-month prison service for hiding a separate mobile phone within his cell.
It was found during a search by prison officers.
Brennan, who hid the device behind a panel within the room, said he had been “pressured” by other inmates to look after the phone.
“This was his first time in jail,” his defence agent, Jane Dickers, said.
“He tells me he was under considerable pressure from more experiences inmates to mind the telephone.
“He felt obliged.”
