A PRISONER has refused to show up to his trial after being accused of possessing a phone whilst incarcerated.

Lennox Barnes, 21, was due to stand trial at Oxford Crown Court on Friday (July 19) charged with one count of possessing a mobile phone while in HMP Bullingdon, near Bicester.

It is alleged that on January 17 last year, he and his cellmate were caught with a ‘Zanto Ant’ mobile phone.

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However, Barnes has denied the offence – stating it only belonged to his cellmate Armands Burkevics, 22, who has pleaded guilty to the offence.

Despite Barnes refusing to attending court, it was decided that the trial would go ahead in his absence and Judge Ian Pringle explained to the jury that Barnes had refused to attend the proceedings.

Opening the case, the prosecuting barrister explained why it was a criminal offence to possess a mobile in prison.

He said: “It’s a criminal offence to have a mobile phone in prison for reasons in sure you can all understand.

“Prison is a place for punishment. More importantly, prison is a secure environment. Some prisoners might not be entirely content about being in prison so security needs to be tightly controlled.

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“So means of contact while in prison and the outside world needs to be monitored. Letters are read, telephones are made at a scheduled time.

“Because of the nature of these offences people are serving prison sentences for and the type of prisoners that are there, these phone calls can be monitored.

“That’s because there are people who engage in criminal activity on the inside. They arrange for contraband to be brought inside.

“They will direct people on the outside and some take revenge on people they believe will have caused them to end up in prison.”

The prosecution explained that prisoners have to provide a list of numbers of people they wish to contact which is then approved by the prison.

They claim that on the mobile phone, which was found inside a bottle in the shared cell, there was a number which matched an approved one on Barnes’s list – his brother.

Two calls were made to his brother and another man.

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“The Crown would say that the numbers and calls to the defendant’s brother were made by the defendant,” said the prosecution.

“In order to make that call, the defendant would have had to been in control of the phone itself to make that call and because he was in control of it, he was in possession of it.”

The trial continues.