Friday, April 19, 2024
1Killer’s Bebo boasts that prison is like a “hotel”

Killer’s Bebo boasts that prison is like a “hotel”

AN EVIL killer who smashed his victim’s head in with a paving stone has been using a mobile phone smuggled into jail to post boasts about his cushy jail term on social networking site Bebo.

John Graham – who battered neighbour Thomas Hart to death in 2006 – is also claimed to have made threats to rape a young mum in a series of depraved calls from behind bars.

Prison bosses confirmed that they are urgently investigating the allegations after images of the brute, who was jailed last October, appeared online.

They are also probing how he was able to use his Bebo site and phone to make threats against a young Edinburgh mum.

Calls from jail

The 18-year-old victim said she was left “terrified” after Graham repeatedly called her phone and sent messages saying she would be “raped and killed”.

The mum, who has a five-month-old daughter, asked not to be named because her brother is now dating the killer’s ex- girlfriend.

But she said: “I knew John Graham before he was jailed because we lived in the same area. The calls started about two weeks ago.

“He’s threatened to rape and kill me, my mum, and my daughter. He’s said he’ll have someone kill me so I’ve been left really terrified. He’s inside for murder so I don’t know what he’s capable of.

“I can’t believe it’s so easy for him to do this while in prison. I hope they do something about it and take the phone off him.”

Graham should never have been able to get hold of a phone in the high security Edinburgh Prison at Saughton which houses some of Scotland’s most notorious criminals.

Jailed for life

Brutal Graham was sent there after being jailed for life three years ago and ordered to serve a minimum of 15 years over the murder of joiner Thomas, who was 51.

Graham, formerly of West Pilton, Edinburgh, smashed a 3.7 kilo stone over his victim’s head outside his front door in West Pilton Lea in a dispute over £500.

His trial heard how his victim’s skull fractured from one eye socket round the back of his head almost to the other socket.

His nose, cheekbones and jaw were all shattered after suffering several blows.

Minutes later, witnesses saw the drunk 21-year-old laughing and shouting, “Ha ha, Tam’s dead”.

Thug Graham is also serving a five-year sentence for a machete assault which left a 21-year-old victim scarred for life.

“On tour at HM’s hotels”

Images on his Bebo site have Graham boasting on his web pages that himself and fellow youth gang members from the Pilton area are “on tour at Her Majesty’s hotels”.

It contains a string of vicious rants including threats against the “grassing *******” whom Graham claims will “suffer ten times more than I did” when he is finally released.

The site also features volleys of sectarian and racist abuse.

Graham himself the “ginger monkey” and tells those he blames for crossing him on the outside that they have “invited the devil into ur lifes”.

A number of photos are posted, including shots of Graham and other inmates each wearing prison issue clothes embossed with “SPS”.

The site includes references to his affiliation with the city youth gang, Young Pilton Derry, while he writes that “last year has been the hardest year of my life” and “I hate all my past”.

Graham also lists his favourite films as gangster movies Carlito’s Way and Once Upon a Time in America, as well as In The Name of the Father about the Guildford four.

The killer has 206 “friends” on his page, and uses the site to keep in contact with family members and pals, including other north Edinburgh criminals serving their own jail terms.

Call for inquiry

It was impossible to say if he was able to update his site alone or contact others on the outside to do his sick bidding.

Graham’s younger brother, who was jailed for life last October for fatally stabbing 31-year-old Mark Johnston in Haddington Place, also has his own Bebo site.

Photographs believed to show Philip Graham, 22, inside his prison cell are posted on his pages.

Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken called for both a “full inquiry” to be carried out by jail chiefs and a police investigation to determine whether John Graham can be prosecuted.

He said: “In soft-touch Scotland, all things are possible whilst in jail. Firstly, this man should not have a phone in prison, as that is forbidden, and secondly he should not be able to make calls of this type.

“A full inquiry should be carried out and, if appropriate, charges brought against this individual in light of the alleged threatening nature of these calls.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We have already made possession of a mobile phone or SIM card in prison an offence. And we are currently creating a new offence of using a mobile phone in prison with a tougher penalty of up to two years in prison.”

A Scottish Prison Service (SPS) spokeswoman confirmed it was “looking into” the allegations.

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