A notorious gangland killer was caught with a contraband iPhone in his cell at maximum security Perth Prison.
Paul Lyons said he decided to get an illicit smartphone after he was brutally attacked by another inmate.
Officers found the device hidden underneath a false bottom in a wastepaper basket in the 40-year-old’s cell.
It is the second time the prisoner has been found with a phone behind bars.
But Lyons, who was jailed in 2010 for a road-rage killing, will escape further punishment after Perth Sheriff Court heard he wasn’t eligible for release until December 2024.
After he was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment starting from Friday, Lyons told the court via video link: “Thanks very much. Bye bye.”
Cell raid
Fiscal depute Lisa Marshall told the court: “On July 9, last year, prison officers received information which caused them to conduct a search of the accused’s cell.
“There was suspicion that he was in possession of a mobile phone.”
She said: “The wastepaper bin in the cell appeared to have a false bottom and when this was removed, an iPhone 6 and charging cable was found inside.
“It was seized and the matter was reported to my office.”
Lyons, now a prisoner at HMP Shotts, pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing a communication device while in prison.
Felt ‘vulnerable’ after attack
His solicitor Callum Ross said: “The circumstances in Perth led to Mr Lyons to making a very poor choice in securing this phone.
“At the end of December 2019, he was the victim of a very serious assault within the prison environment.
“That resulted in a situation where Mr Lyons became isolated and felt vulnerable, and that is why he made this choice.
“It has already had an affect on him. This case was outstanding when he was up for parole in October.
“That’s never a good thing for a prisoner to have hanging over them.
“Maybe that was one of the matters that led to him being refused parole.”
Mr Ross said that Lyons would have a second attempt at early release next year.
“There is no denying that this matter has set him back,” Mr Ross said.
“I know that he has a serious record, and I am not shying away from that.
“But he has pled guilty at an early stage, and he still has a substantial sentence left to serve.”
Sheriff Francis Gill jailed Lyons for four months, but the term will run concurrently with his ongoing sentence.
Visiting room assault
In May last year, prisoner David Scott was jailed for eight years for assaulting Lyons.
He pounced on him within a visiting room at HMP Perth in front of shocked children, and slashed a vital artery in his neck.
Scott, who is believed to have gangland links in Glasgow, screamed: “Paul Lyons is a grass and his whole family are grasses.”
Lyons was jailed at the High Court in 2010 for killing Mark Fleeman, 32, in a 100 miles per hour road rage attack.
Lyons consumed a cocktail of alcohol and drugs before he rammed the father-of-two off the M74 in Lanarkshire.
Mr 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 in a bid to escape justice, but he was extradited back to Scotland after being arrested by Spanish police.
He pled guilty to culpable homicide and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
In 2018, he was caught hiding an illicit mobile phone in his underwear.
At the time, he said he needed the mobile because he was “emotional” about being moved to HMP Perth, away from his family.
He was jailed for nine months.
