‘Mocked and segregated’: Huhne’s prison stretch off to a rough start
By politics.co.uk staff
Chris Huhne is being ridiculed by wardens and pestered for cash by his fellow inmates at Wandsworth prison, a newspaper has claimed.
The disgraced former Cabinet minister, having controlled Britain's energy and climate change policy for two years, now finds himself behind bars in Wandsworth prison enduring the first days of his eight-month sentence.
His first full day in prison began at 7am with a mocking welcome from a prison warder, the Sun reported.
"Order! Order!" the tabloid quoted the warder as having announced over the prison's tannoy system. "The right honourable member for Wandsworth North — down to the office."
Huhne's fellow prisoners were said to be deeply amused by the remark. They have reportedly begun appealing to Huhne for cash after discovering he is a millionaire.
He is said to have been moved to a wing of the prison for vulnerable prisoners after appealing to prison staff to be isolated.
His ordeal at Wandsworth prison is not expected to last more than a couple of weeks, before his high-level security grade allows him to be transferred to a more comfortable open prison.
Until then he is likely to face a deeply uncomfortable period. "It is one of the roughest prisons in the country," serial convict Jimmy Donovan told the Sun.
"It's alive with rats. You can hear them scratching at night and they even come through your cell window."
Huhne and his ex-wife Vicky Pryce, who is currently in Holloway prison after also receiving an eight-month sentence, can expect to be released after just two months.
Offenders who are sentenced for non-violent and non-sexual offences are released four-and-a-half months early, subject to their having served a quarter of their sentence.
