A notorious Scottish gangland killer has admitted being caught with a mobile phone behind bars - for the third time.
Paul Lyons, 41, was caught with an iPhone in his cell at high security HMP Shotts, Lanarkshire. Prison officers carried out a random search and discovered the device stashed inside a hidden compartment of a box.
Lyons, who was jailed in 2010 for a road-rage killing, appeared via video link from HMP Kilmarnock at Hamilton Sheriff Court.
He admitted a charge of possessing a communication device while in the prison in October 2021. Prosecutors dropped a charge alleging he also had a SIM card.
Speaking from the prison, Lyons said: "I lost my parole through this because I was up in May this year but my earliest release is now December 2024."
Depute fiscal Tiffany Chisholm told the court: "A search was carried out of the accused's cell and he was compliant during the search.
"Prison officers asked if the accused's property within the cell was all his and he replied 'yes'. He was then asked if there were any items in the cell which he should not have to which he replied 'no'.
"During the course of the cell search a box was discovered to have a secret compartment and within this compartment was an iPhone. This was seized and given to prison security while the accused made no comment to any of the charges."
Rosemary Robinson, defending, said: "He is serving a lengthy sentence which restricts the options available to the court."
Sheriff James Spy handed Lyons a six-month sentence which will run alongside his current 12-year term for culpable homicide.
Last year Lyons admitted having a phone behind bars in HMP Perth. He said he had the illicit smartphone after he was attacked by another inmate. Officers found the device hidden underneath a false bottom in a wastepaper basket in his cell.
In 2018, he was caught hiding an illicit mobile phone in his underwear in the same prison. He said he needed the mobile because he missed his family.
Last year, prisoner David Scott was jailed for eight years for assaulting Lyons in a vicious prison attack. He pounced on him in a visiting room at HMP Perth in front of shocked children and slashed a vital artery in his neck.
Lyons was jailed at the High Court in 2010 for killing Mark Fleeman, 32, in a 100 miles per hour road rage attack.
He consumed a cocktail of alcohol and drugs before he rammed the father-of-two off the M74 in Lanarkshire.
Fleeman, from Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, died when his van was sent careering across the road near Larkhall. Lyons, a well-known figure in the Glasgow underworld, fled to Spain after the killing.
However, he was extradited back to Scotland after being arrested, and later pled guilty to culpable homicide and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
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