A VISITOR tried to smuggle drugs into prison inside a sandwich for a friend who was struggling to cope with life behind bars.

Mark Wright took a bite from the snack before hiding two buprenorphine tablets inside, Teesside Crown Court was told.

The 41-year-old, from Bishop Auckland, was jailed for one month after he admitted converting a prohibited article into prison.

The sentence will be added to an 18-month term he received in September for supplying drugs to an undercover police officer.

Wright was on bail for the heroin offence when he tried to take the pills into Holme House Prison, in Stockton, in May.

The court heard that a CCTV operator was watching him as he chatted to an inmate at a table, and saw him hide the tablets.

Scott Smith, mitigating, said: "His only reason for taking that into prison was his friend had recently been imprisoned and he knew he was having difficulty with withdrawal.

"He would say he was prescribed this medication himself as a part of efforts to get him to abstain from his drug use, and he took it in to help, as misguided and as stupid as that was."

Wright, of Princes Street, Bishop Auckland, was told by Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, that he would have received a longer sentence had he taken in pills for a prisoner to use as currency.

The judge said: "Anyone who takes drugs into prison is committing a serious offence, even in the quantity you were involved in, because it undermines the management of the prison."

Mr Smith said Wright would have taken in many more pills if they were to be used as black market cash or if he had been put under pressure to do it.