'TERRORIST' firebomber Robert Warnock who tried to turn Greenock into a 'warzone' by masterminding murder plots from prison via an illicit phone has today admitted possession of another unauthorised mobile.

It is the SIXTH time the callous gangster has been caught with a banned communication device in prison.

The latest phone was found concealed in his clothing after prison officers subjected him to a full body search in HMP Addiewell, West Lothian.

Warnock, 26, was already serving a sentence for attempted murder when he co-ordinated targeted attacks on properties in Greenock in revenge for his brother being stabbed.

The violent thug’s original 11-year sentence was imposed in April 2020 for attempting to murder a woman and disfiguring her partner using a cleaver and an axe.

He was jailed for a further 15 years and three months for conspiracy to murder at the High Court in Glasgow in November last year for the firebomb campaign.

Livingston Sheriff Court was told that his lengthy criminal record, which means his earliest release date was in 2045, did him no favours and he accepted that a further prison sentence was inevitable.

Prosecutor Katie Deans told the court that two prison officers were deployed to attend Warnock's cell just days after the fire bombing sentencing.

The fiscal depute said: “He was the sole occupant of the cell. He was asked if everything in the cell belonged to him and he said ‘yes’.

“He was subjected to a full body search and an unauthorised mobile phone was found on his person."

Greenock Telegraph:

Ellen MacDonald, defending, said: “The situation he found himself in was somewhat difficult. He has been in segregation since June 2022 so it’s now over a year.

“The reason for that is prison management issues and it was a few months before he got a television for the first time.

“He’s a young man with a record that does him no favours. He lost his 18-year-old brother Reece three years ago and his cousin, at the age of 26, has been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease.

“His family lives a considerable distance from the prison and the sole purpose of the phone was to have more contact with his family.”

Sheriff James MacDonald told Warnock: “You have multiple previous convictions for an offence of this type. You have, however, pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

“Any sentence I impose should not just punish you but should also deter you from further offending.

“There is no other sentence that’s appropriate other than a sentence of imprisonment. 

"That will be one of 200 days, but that will commence on the expiry of your current sentences."

Warnock used mobile phones in prison to orchestrate attacks targeting the families of rivals in revenge for the stabbing of his brother who was 18.

He blamed Andrew Sutherland and Sutherland's half-brother Leonard Cole jnr for the attack on Reece in August 2019. 

The first was a petrol bombing on July 13 2020 at a flat in Union Street where Cole's parents were at the time. 

A drug user called George Miller, 46, was then hired to target the property again on September 14 that year.

After pouring petrol on the door and through the letterbox, Miller ended up dead after setting himself on fire. 

The final incident was at a flat in the town's Cumberland Road on September 19 2020 where Cole's relatives - including a six-year-old child - were.

Sentencing him for those attacks, Lord Mulholland said he had acted like 'a gangster' in a 'campaign of terror' as he sought to turn the streets of Greenock into a 'warzone' for his feud.