A PRISONER used a smuggled mobile phone to call his partner and family after she gave birth while he was behind bars and the baby had serious health problems.

David Miller-Gascoigne would ordinarily have had received a lengthy sentence on top of the one he is already serving, said a judge, but he showed him mercy.

Judge Tony Briggs, sitting at Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday that handsets are banned in jails because they are often used to arrange drug deals.

Stephen Constantine, mitigating, said four cell-mates were questioned by officials at Holme House Prison, in Stockton, and one admitted the phone was his.

The owner was said to have been dealt with internally, but because Miller-Gascoigne had been the most prolific user of the mobile, he was prosecuted.

He was said to have been stressed by his family situation, and in just one week, exchanged 149 text messages and seven phone calls with his partner.

Mr Constantine said: "Missing the birth of his son and then having to be separated from his immediate family while these problems were ongoing and the child continuing to be hospitalised was very stressful.

"He was told a phone was available and made the best use of it."

Miller-Gascoigne, of Avondale Gardens, Hartlepool, admitted possessing a prohibited article in prison, and was given three months to run alongside a sentence he is already serving - meaning a release in September.

Judge Briggs told him: "The illicit possession of a mobile phone in prison is a matter of some seriousness, which inevitably attracts a custodial sentence and, indeed, a sentence that would certainly extend by some way your present sentence.

"However, I am satisfied that you have particular family difficulties at the moment, arising out of the serious ill-health of of a child born to you recently.

"I am satisfied that on the technical evidence available, the use you put to that phone, that you didn't bring into prison, was exclusively with members of your family and are likely to be linked to the situation with your child.

"It should, however, be seriously understood that any possession of a mobile phone is likely to attract a consecutive sentence, and it is only the peculiar circumstances of this case that make me able to take this unusual and merciful course."