A serving prisoner at HMP Hull repeatedly activated an alarm bell from his cell to alert a member of staff that he needed attention because he claimed he was “on Spice”. On the third and fourth response, the officer saw that he was performing a sex act.
The officer was in a vulnerable position because of having to respond due to the risk of the prisoner being in a genuine emergency, a court heard.
Adrian Billany, 32, of Marfleet Lane, east Hull, admitted an offence of exposure and two offences of having indecent images of children.
He told police that he was trawling the internet for images of actress Scarlett Johansson and found a link to a website with banned images of children. Jane Rapin, prosecuting, told Grimsby Crown Court that Billany was in prison on February 23 this year when he sounded an alarm to contact a prison officer.
He asked the guard to switch off a light in his cell. This was repeated for a second time. On the third occasion that he raised the alarm, the prison officer looked through a viewing hatch and saw that Billany was naked and performing a sex act.
He was warned that it was not acceptable behaviour. A short time later, the alarm was raised for a fourth time and, on this occasion, the prison officer saw him sitting naked on a chair.
In a victim impact statement, the officer said the felt disgusted and anxious that Billany would do it again. The officer’s duties were moved to another wing of the prison.
Billany was interviewed by police in prison. He claimed that he was “on Spice”. On his release from jail, the defendant was subject to restrictions of a sexual harm prevention order. That required him to submit to a police officer the details of his internet search history. On one visit to his home by officers in May this year, they discovered he had visited a banned website.
One of the images was of the most serious category. He was classed as a high risk to children, the court heard. He had convictions for 35 previous offences, with six of them sex offences.
Samantha Laws, mitigating, said: “Prisoners unfortunately have access to drugs and alcohol.” There were signs that Billany was changing his behaviour and seeking help for his poor impulse control. He had asked about chemical castration and anti-libido medication.
Judge Gurdial Singh said that the prison officer was distressed and disgusted by the incident. “It could have been a real emergency and it could not have been ignored,” he said.
Billany was jailed for 14 months and he was given a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years. He will be on the sex offenders’ egister for 10 years.
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