Crackdown on jail web posts after Norris storm

MINISTERS are planning to create an intelligence unit to track prisoners’ illegal online posts in the wake of a scandal involving one of Stephen Lawrence’s killers.

The Daily Mail revealed last week how, in an astonishing breach of prison security, murderer David Norris acquired a smartphone and used it to post sickening selfies from his cell.

He even used the device to launch a foul- mouthed tirade against former justice secretary Dominic Raab.

Now ministers want to create a specialist team to seek out online posts by inmates. It will gather information by scanning social media platforms in a bid to lead prison officials straight to inmates who are breaking the rules.

The project is likely to involve the National Crime Agency, dubbed ‘Britain’s FBI’, police and even the security services, it is understood.

‘Online bragging used against them’

The scheme will probably use the same technology that is deployed to combat online paedophiles and terrorists, it is thought.

Prisoners are banned from having mobile phones in order to prevent them from intimidating victims and witnesses, or running criminal empires from behind bars.

In a separate development, ministers are also understood to be considering a review of prisoners’ access to games consoles after a cell selfie posted by Norris showed an Xbox in the background.

‘We’re not suggesting prisoners should languish in their cells with just a book, but there has to be a proper balance,’ a Government source said.

One of Britain’s most notorious killers, Norris was convicted of 18year-old Stephen’s 1993 murder at a bus stop in Eltham, south- east London. He and his racist gang targeted the aspiring architect because of the colour of his skin.

The 46- year- old prisoner brazenly posted a picture of himself in his cell wearing Top Gun-style sunglasses and with his TV and games console.

He also launched a WhatsApp rant against Mr Raab, who blocked his bid to move to an open prison.

Norris wrote: ‘ Dom Raab your [sic] f***** c*** cos the Nozza is defo home in two [years] and High Court now agrees. Get that party sorted girls cos I be there soon.’

A whistleblower said Norris bragged to fellow inmates that he was the gang member who stabbed Stephen to death. If true, this is a significant revelation because police are still uncertain who wielded the knife. His breach of the rules could result in him having his minimum jail term of 14 years and three months extended by up to two years.

The former gangster’s son was placed in the segregation unit at Category C Dartmoor Prison – effectively in solitary confinement – pending an investigation.

Specialist X-ray scanning equipment later discovered a smartphone hidden inside an intimate part of Norris’s body.

Ministers are believed to reluctantly accept that illegal items, including phones, will find their way into prisons.

Contraband is thrown over jail walls, flown in by drone or even smuggled into the prison by corrupt staff.

Tracking down online posts by prisoners would reduce the importance of speculative cell searches. Prisoners’ online bragging would instead be pro-actively traced – and used against them.

It could even provide material for new prosecutions, it is thought.

■ The Prison Service has invested £125million over the last two years in ‘transforming the way prisons prevent drugs and mobile phones from getting in’. A spokesman said the plan involved signal blocking technology and 75 high-resolution X-ray body scanners covering all male prisons.

A separate drug test regime aimed at cutting reoffending will come into effect today.

All offenders sent to live in ‘halfway house’ bail hostels will be tested randomly once a week under the rigorous £1.2million scheme.

It will focus on criminals whose offences are linked to drug habits, such as burglars who steal to feed their addictions. Failing a test could result in being sent back to jail.