Earlier this month, John Sebastian Nicolle (48) was jailed for 4½ years after stamping on the head of an unconscious man during a ‘brutal’ and ‘unprovoked’ assault. He also pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman on the same occasion.
During sentencing it was revealed that Nicolle had been able to call the woman 250 times from prison in a bid to get her to retract her evidence.
This was despite a court order being in place preventing him from doing so. Nicolle was able to make the calls by supplying a false name alongside the woman’s number to prison authorities. He also pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Shortly after the case came to light, Deputy Mike Higgins, a member of the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel, called for a full investigation to be carried out into the incident, calling it a ‘major failure’ of the prison system and pledging to raise the issue in the States.
The prison service have now commented on the incident, saying that they have revised their internal procedures and are working with other agencies to enable them to better detect unauthorised phone calls.
A spokesperson said: ‘In this particular case, the States of Jersey Prison Service enforced a court order regarding restrictions to identified numbers.
‘However, the prisoner managed to make calls to a person which breached contact restrictions requested by the court. The breach was detected and reported to the States of Jersey Police for investigation, which resulted in a prosecution.
‘As the result of this case, SoJPS have revised its internal procedures and is working with States police, Independent Domestic Violence Advisor Service, and other agencies on improving detection procedures to help support victims and to prevent this from happening again.’
Explaining the scope of prisoners’ access to phones, the spokesperson added: ‘The phones are provided by the prison and prisoners are not allowed their own personal mobile phones.
‘Access to prison phones is a privilege that can be removed at any time. This usage is closely monitored and all telephone calls are recorded. Prisoners pay for their calls.’
Alongside phone calls, inmates can also now make monitored video calls to relatives as part of efforts to help them maintain family ties. The technology was introduced by former prison governor Nick Cameron in 2019.
