A prisoner who stunned Boris Johnson by trying to smuggle drugs into his jail in a Kinder Egg inside him has had more time added to his sentence.
When the PM was shown body scan images of packages hidden up inmates’ bottoms last summer he grimaced and said: ‘You’re joking.’
One of the images was captured taken two months earlier when Zachary Bowler, 27, had been jailed for beating his girlfriend up with a cricket bat.
Boris Johnson was aghast when he was shown an x-ray of a prison who had smuggled drugs into prison hidden inside a Kinder egg back in August during a tour of prisons
Now it’s been revealed that inmate Zachary Bowler, 27, (pictured) is the prisoner who stunned the Prime Minister by secreting the drugs inside him
Bowler handed over a Kinder egg which contained ten buprenorphine tablets. The class-C drug is more commonly known as subutex and is prescribed to addicts going through detox
He was not identified at the time but has now been named in court where a judge ordered him to spend more time behind bars.
Leeds Crown Court heard warders spotted an ‘oval package’ inside Bowler’s body when he was scanned as he was booked into HMP Leeds.
Prosecutor Stephen Welch said Bowler was placed in an isolation cell and ‘asked to retrieve the item’.
A close up image of Bowler’s x-ray scan
The defendant handed over a Kinder Egg which contained ten buprenorphine tablets.
The class-C drug is more commonly known as subutex and is often prescribed to addicts going through detox.
Bowler, from the village of Boston Spa, West Yorkshire, admitted hiding the Kinder Egg inside his body.
The heroin addict said the drugs were for his own use as he was worried about going cold turkey while behind bars.
He pleaded guilty to conveying a list A article into prison.
Sean Smith, mitigating, said: ‘He made the decision to take ten tablets in to the prison with him to try to assist him.
He had been prescribed the tablets three weeks before. He had been trying to wean himself off heroin.’
Bowler was given a 14-week sentence, to be added to the two-and-a-half year sentence he is currently serving.
Judge Andrew Stubbs said: ‘You secreted a Kinder Egg up your backside.
‘I accept that they were for your own use.
‘But the danger of smuggling drugs into prison is well known.
‘You could have subjected yourself to violence or possible threats.
The PM took a closer look during his visit of Leeds prison where an £80,000 torso scanner had been installed at the jail to detect people bringing in contraband
‘Possession of drugs inside the prison estate is far more serious than outside.
‘They have a corrosive influence inside prison.’
Last summer the Prime Minister was show the image as an example of the eye-watering smuggling methods used by lags.
Footage showed Mr Johnson looking at the body scan x-ray in disbelief saying: ‘A Kinder Egg? Is that inside the?’
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, who was standing beside the PM, intervened to confirm the assumption.
But Mr Johnson still seemed unable to get his head around the whole phenomena.
He went on to ask: ‘He’s ingested it?’, to which the officer replied: ‘He’s plugged it’.
Still unable to come to terms with the picture of the Kinder Egg he was being shown, he burst out saying: ‘He plugged it?!’
Mr Johnson was then shown a second image.
This time it was an offender who had used the same ‘plugging’ technique to smuggle tobacco.
A shocked Mr Johnson said: ‘You are joking.’
Mr Johnson was visiting the prison when, according to its latest inspection, it was one of the most overcrowded in the UK and where in 2017 the majority of inmates claimed obtaining drugs was easy.
The scanner is said to have reduced the amount of drugs smuggled and therefore violence.
After Bowler’s sentencing hearing, Detective Sergeant Lee Stowe, of Leeds District Prison Crime Team, said: ‘The supply and consumption of Illegal drugs in prisons fuels violence, exploitation and self-harm and creates significant risks to inmates and to staff.
‘We will continue to work closely in partnership with the prison authorities to deter and disrupt the smuggling of drugs into prisons and conduct comprehensive investigations to ensure those, such as Bowler, who commit these offences are punished accordingly.’