An inmate on the run from an open prison for four months after being pressured into smuggling drugs is back behind bars.

David Murray, of Dover, was a model prisoner in HMP Elmley when he was granted enhanced status and transferred to an open prison.

But the 28-year-old would abscond from HMP Ford in July while on day release, triggering a police manhunt.

Murray was convicted of conspiring to supply Class A drugs and sentenced to five-and-a-half years at Canterbury Crown Court in December 2020.

But while serving his time, another inmate on a life sentence made Murray’s “life a misery,” the same court heard today.

And so Murray worked to be granted HMP’s most trusted status, then was transferred to the Category D West Sussex prison.

However after just his second session of day release Murray failed to return before 7.45pm, the court heard.

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His lawyer said Murray had come under pressure from fellow inmates to smuggle contraband back inside, and he went on the run instead of telling the authorities.

“Once word got out that he was going to be a prisoner on day release he was told he was going to have to bring something back to prison on return,” Ben Irwin mitigating said.

“He knew full well that if he involved himself in bringing drugs back into prison he would have been liable for a long sentence.

“He tells me he took that decision because he was scared of returning to Ford prison and what might happen.”

Officers arrested Murray, who had been staying on a friend’s floor, in November after seeing him out.

Murray, of Templar Street, was part of a drugs network operating the so called ‘B’ line, which made around 60 deals a day in Dover.

The line supplied nearly five kilos of heroin and crack cocaine, worth around £300,000, to addicts between June 2019 and and February 2020, police said.

Handing down a six-month sentence, the judge, Recorder Matthew McDonagh, told Murray informing HMP Ford staff he was under duress would have been “the right decision.”

“It is clear that during the course of your imprisonment you were a model prisoner,” he said.

“I accept entirely that things were going well and you were optimistic about the future.

“Having been at Ford open prison you made a conscious decision not to return.”

Murray, who appeared in court from HMP Elmley, pleaded guilty to being unlawfully at large at the first opportunity.