A woman caught smuggling drugs into Bullingdon Prison received a lenient sentence because of her college plans.

Haseena Mollany, 20, admitted smuggling a quarter ounce of cannabis in her hair to give to her brother who was an inmate at the jail near Bicester.

Oxford Crown Court heard on July 4 that when she passed through security scanners during a prison visit in February, the cannabis was found in her hair.

Mollany, of Wyatts Lane, Walthamstow, London, was taken to Abingdon police station and interviewed.

She told police she had found the package, then said she had bought the drugs for herself, before admitting she had taken drugs into the prison to give to her brother on three previous occasions.

These offences were taken into consideration.

She was sentenced to 16 weeks in a young offenders' institution but will be released in time to start a college course in September.

Judge Anthony King said he had taken into account that she had the chance to turn her life around through education. He added: "It's only because of your special circumstances I have passed such a lenient sentence."