Major security breach at Belmarsh prison after two iPhones were found inside ... trends now
The Prison Service has launched an urgent investigation after a major security breach at one of the country's high-profile jails.
Wardens found two mobile phones inside Belmarsh prison's High Dependency Unit – which holds some of the country's most dangerous criminals and terrorists.
Described as 'a prison within a prison', the HDU holds the majority of the UK's terror suspects, where the internet ready iPhones were discovered over a period of two weeks last month.
It is the first time that mobile phones have been discovered in the unit, which consists of 48 single cells, with a dozen of these being used to house Britain's most dangerous criminals.
Past inmates in the HSU included feared gangster Colin Gunn, serving 35-years for drugs and conspiracy to murder and Michael Adebolajo, then 28, one of the killers of Fusilier Rigby, in May 2013.
Wardens found two mobile phones inside Belmarsh prison's (pictured) High Dependency Unit – which holds some of the country's most dangerous criminals and terrorists
Past inmates in the HSU included feared gangster Colin Gunn, serving 35-years for drugs and conspiracy to murder and Michael Adebolajo , then 28, one of the killers of Fusilier Rigby, in May 2013
In more recent times, Metropolitan Police constable Wayne Couzens (left), who kidnapped, raped and strangled Sarah Everard, 33, in 2021, was held in one of the 12 super secure cells for his own protection. Daniel Khalife (right) was moved to the high-security prison after escaping from a different jail earlier this year
In more recent times, Metropolitan Police constable Wayne Couzens, who kidnapped, raped and strangled Sarah Everard, 33, in 2021, was held in one of the 12 super secure cells for his own protection. Couzens, then 48, was given a whole-life sentence.
The 12 highest security cells are collectively known as Special Secure Unit (SSU) for 'exceptional risk' prisoners. Hook-handed hate preacher Abu Hamza was held in the SSU before being deported to a US jail.
A source said: 'The HSU has the highest security status as it holds the worst-of-the-worst criminals, who are isolated from the main prison population because they present a constant danger.
'The very worst scenario is for these inmates to have access to the outside world where they will be free to continue with their criminal behaviour. Some of the biggest crime bosses in the country are held in the unit.'
A second source said: 'The prison bosses want to know how the iPhones were smuggled in and who they were intended for.
'The phones will be forensically examined to find out who has been rung or what has been accessed.'
The source added: 'This is the first time that the formidable security around the HSU has been
