Killer driver used phone in Doncaster prison to post pictures of himself to Facebook

During a hearing at Sheffield Crown Court yesterday, James Maughan pleaded guilty to a string of charges relating to the use of a mobile phone in prison.

The court was told how Maughan, 23, posted pictures of himself in HMP Doncaster on Facebook while he was on remand at the prison in October last year.

When the pictures were posted on the social media site between October 22 and November 5 last year Maughan was on remand for charges including two counts of causing death by dangerous driving relating to a fatal crash in Branton on August 25, 2015.

The court was told that police were made aware of the pictures after a relative of one of the two men killed in the Branton crash - Liam Aldred, 26, and Dean McIntyre, 27 - saw the pictures of Maughan circulating on Facebook and informed the police.

Proescutor Andrew Slater said: “The photos caused considerable upset to the families of the deceased.”

During the same period Maughan was found to have smuggled three mobile phones into prison, and used them from his cell to communicate and to go on the internet.

During the plea hearing, appearing from video link at HMP Nottingham, Maughan firstly spoke to enter his guilty pleas for the four charges relating to the use of the mobile phones in prison.

After a woman sitting in the public gallery shouted ‘I love you’ to Maughan as the hearing concluded, the 23-year-old spoke again to say ‘I love you’ to the woman before being taken back to prison.

In March this year Maughan was sentenced to 10 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Maughan is set to be sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court on Monday for the new charges.