Lawyer cleared of attempting to smuggle mobile phone into prison

A LEADING criminal solicitor has been cleared of attempting to smuggle a mobile phone into jail.

Robert Fairbairn, 58, had faced court claims he tried to smuggle a phone into Addiewell jail in West Lothian.

But he was found not guilty of the charge at the end of a two-day trial at Livingston Sheriff Court last week.

The Edinburgh lawyer, who denied the charge, admitted he was “shocked, surprised and embarrassed” when prison guards found the Nokia handset during an x-ray scan of his jacket.

He said he’d made a “genuine oversight” by forgetting to take the mobile out of his jacket pocket before entering the prison on January 22 last year.

Fairbairn said he’d been “flustered, irritable and short-tempered” before the seizure, which had led to the oversight.

He also produced medical evidence that he had been suffering from “acute anxiety” brought on by stress at the time and had consulted his GP about mental health problems the day before the alleged offence.

He added he was mistaken about where mobiles were allowed in the prison confines.

Three prison officers gave evidence claiming the lawyer had an “aggressive” manner as he was subjected to a search.

Dog handler John Park, 43, said the lawyer seemed “quite agitated” by his body language and the way he was responding to the staff.

He said: “He was asked more than once if he had a mobile phone in his jacket.

“He reacted strangely to be informed there was a phone.

“Normally someone would react with some shock and say: ‘Oh my, I forgot it was there!’

“He didn’t make any excuse or apologise.”

Michelle Buggy, 36, a prison officer at Addiewell at the time, said a dog was present at the search.

She told the court: “He said something like: ‘This doesn’t happen in any other prison.’

“Eventually he took his jacket off. He put it in the tray and I put it through x-ray machine.

“He stormed through the metal detector. He wasn’t very happy.

“The hands were going. His face was a bit flushed. He was moaning throughout the whole search, for about 10 minutes.”

Prison officer Craig Smith, 34, described Fairbairn as being “really uptight”. He added: “You just knew he was irate about something.”

Speaking in his own defence, Fairbairn said he had an aversion to dogs and was running more than 10 minutes late for a joint consultation with senior counsel Iain Duguid QC and a client charged with attempted murder.

Delivering his verdict, summary Sheriff John MacRitchie ruled prosecutors had failed to show mobiles were banned in the public reception area where Mr Fairbairn was.

The Scottish Prison Service has strict rules on phones, banning them completely from visiting times and areas in an attempt to curb their use behind prison walls.

Mr Fairbairn has a wealth of criminal defence experience including defending driver Gary McCourt who killed two cyclist but escaped with a controversial sentence of 300 hours community service in 2013.

In 2012 the Scottish Government made it a criminal offence for an inmate to have a mobile phone.

Despite this seizures continue. In 2015, 425 illegal phones were discovered after random prison cell searches.