Secret unit 'bugged hundreds of prison visits'
Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor
Last Updated: 2:32am GMT 09/02/2008
Hundreds of conversations at Woodhill Prison were systematically
recorded by a top-secret police team over the past six years, it has
emerged this weekend.
Special prison visiting tables hid sophisticated bugging devices.
Visitors' bags and other personal possessions were searched and
copies taken of mobile phone contacts, personal documents and even
keys. The allegations from a well-placed insider have led to calls
for the former judge investigating the bugging scandal to extend his
inquiry to probe all the alleged eavesdropping incidents at the prison.
Det Sgt Mark Kearney claims to have led a four-person team based at
the prison that allegedly pioneered a new national programme to
record covertly many of Britain's most notorious inmates, including
dozens of terror suspects.
advertisementSecret microphones were alleged to have been hidden in
specially adapted prison visiting tables in the divide between
prisoner and visitor. The "bugging tables" were regularly moved
between rooms and within the visiting areas in an attempt to prevent
lawyers becoming suspicious. By 2007, there were understood to have
been six tables in operation.
In legal documents seen by The Daily Telegraph, Mr Kearney claims his
team had to work late at night to avoid alerting prison staff.
He said: "Keeping the covert recording devices (which are secreted
into the visiting tables) working was always problematic. It involved
working late quite often, so that we could covertly gain access to
the tables, for maintenance."
Mr Kearney was appointed for his expertise in covert operations. In
the late 1990s, he worked for the National Crime Squad as a liason
for secret informants, said to have included one of Britain's top
supergrasses. In 2002, he was given his new role responsible for
"prison intelligence within Thames Valley" and implemented the secret
policy of bugging prison visits. According to the well-placed
insider, every time certain prisoners requested visiting orders, Mr
Kearney's team would file an "intelligence report" on the background
of the proposed visitor. "They were always told to tape them," the
insider claimed.
Within Woodhill Prison, Mr Kearney's unit had a special "bugging
suite". Three copies were made of each tape. One was sent to the
relevant police investigation unit.
The other two are held at a secret location that cannot be revealed
by The Daily Telegraph. It is alleged that because of the quality of
the secret recording at Woodhill, prisoners were specifically moved
there. This practice began to infuriate Mr Kearney as he was allegedy
contacted by police forces around the country asking for his services.
Mr Kearney's legal statement claims: "It was requested that [Miles]
Cooper [the letter bomber] be made a Category 'A' inmate, and go to
Woodhill prison, so that we could bug all his telephone calls and
social visits. I was reluctant, we were up to capacity at Woodhill
prison with that type of work"
However, Mr Cooper, who was convicted last year, was made a Category
A offender and moved to Woodhill within days of the request.
After the secret recording of Sadiq Khan MP during a visit to the
prison, Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, appointed Sir Christopher
Rose to mount an inquiry. Mr Kearney has already offered to assist
him and the Tories are expected to claim there has been a whitewash
if the offer is not taken up.
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