A mother has been jailed for smuggling a mobile phone into prison while carrying her newborn baby.

Leila Hanford, 32, carried her 11-week old baby on a visit to jail when she tried to sneak the mobile phone past security.

But the new mum was caught when the package was spotted under a chair.

Hanford was arrested and said: "It has got nothing to do with me.”

A court heard she later confessed saying she was acting "through fear."

Prosecutor Lowri Wynn Morgan said Hanford had hidden the phone inside her body to take it to HM Prison Cardiff.

Ms Wynn Morgan said: "A small package was found under the chair where the defendant had been sitting.

"It was a very small mobile phone.”

The court heard Hanford took the phone into the Category B prison wrapped in cling film - measuring three inches long and one inch thick.

There was blood on the packaging and forensic tests linked it to Hanford.

Hanford said a group of men she did not know from London came to her home and asked which prison her partner was in.

She told the police they returned and told her to take the phone into Cardiff Prison - threatening to damage her home.

The court heard she smuggled the phone on October 17 last year while her partner was serving time for drug offences.

Hanford, of Mill Parade in Newport, Gwent admitted taking a List B prohibited article into prison.

She was in breach of a suspended sentence for possessing a Class B drug with intent to supply.

Ben Waters, defending, said she was "exhausted" caring for a newborn baby and was a "loving mother".

Hanford was jailed for four months at Cardiff Crown court.

Judge Tom Crowther QC said: "I understand the pressures that were placed upon you.

"Anyone who brings a mobile phone into prison must expect a prison term."