Disgraced prison guard smuggled SIM card into prison for Edinburgh killer Caroline Igoe

killer model Caroline Igoe has admitted to possessing an illicit mobile phone card while inside prison.

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Igoe is currently serving a minimum 20 year jail term for gunning down boyfriend Martin Barclay with a handgun in an Edinburgh street in 2009.

The 43-year-old former glamour model was caged for the shooting following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Wannabe model: Murderer Caroline Igoe

She is currently serving her sentence at HMP Grampian and was brought to Edinburgh Sheriff Court to answer allegations of possessing the SIM card and drug offences.

READ MORE: Edinburgh killer model Caroline Igoe caught with SIM card in prison

The mum-of-four was alleged to have been caught with quantities of the strong pain killers Etizolam and Buprenorphine within a cell at HMP Edinburgh on March 10 last year.

But the murderer’s pleas of not guilty to both drug charges were accepted by prosecutors during Tuesday’s court hearing.

Disgraced: Prison officer Stephanie Frank

Igoe admitted possessing the mobile phone SIM card at the capital prison on the same date. It was handed to her behind bars by disgraced turnkey Stephanie Frank.

Sheriff Peter McCormack warned Igoe of her future conduct and decided to hand out an admonishment on the charge.

Igoe pleaded guilty to possessing a mobile phone SIM card at Edinburgh’s Saughton Prison on March 10 last year.

She had not guilty pleas accepted by the Crown to possessing a quantity of Etizolam and a quantity of Buprenorphine at HMP Edinburgh on March 10 last year.

Victim: Martyn Barclay

READ MORE: Killer Caroline Igoe in jail ‘Commonwealth Games’

A court heard the alarm was triggered when Igoe was seen with pills strewn across a table.

Frank rushed to investigate but a suspicious colleague spotted her carrying out an “overly thorough search”.

Guards then found the card and a receipt for a credit top-up bought from a shop in Bo’Ness, West Lothian, the previous day.

Igoe and her brother Paul, who tried to cover up her crime

A manager later caught Frank trying to cover her tracks by accessing a production room where the seized contraband was stored and scoring out the town name on the receipt.

Prosecutor Alan Wickham said prison chiefs had received “several reports relating to Frank being “over familiar” with Igoe”.

The turnkey was suspended and later arrested.

She told detectives that she gave the SIM to Igoe after learning the her dad and daughter had fallen ill.

Frank, of Falkirk, admitted giving a prisoner a personal communication device and attempting to damage or destroy an item taken from an inmate in March last year and will be sentenced later.

Igoe is currently attempting to clear her name after making a bid to be freed halfway through her sentence earlier this year.

She was convicted of shooting boyfriend Martyn, 26, in the head with his own handgun in the Inch area of Edinburgh in January 2009.

Martin, who had worked as a labourer, was discovered dying in the street outside the home he shared with Igoe and her family in Hazelwood Grove by a man on his way to work.

He was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where he died later.

Prosecutor Alex Prentice QC said Martyn’s death was an “act of cold-blooded murder executed with a chilling military precision”.

Her brother Paul Igoe, 37, was jailed for six years for attempting to cover up the crime. He was cleared of murder.

Lord Bracadale told him that he had hampered the police murder inquiry by taking away and disposing of the gun used for the murder.

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