New footage of Auckland prison inmate’s popular TikTok videos emerges after account shut down

New footage taken by an inmate of life behind bars in an Auckland prison has emerged on social media soon after authorities shut down his account.

A TikTok user going by the username @caposnake embarrassed prison operator Serco by posting footage from a smuggled mobile phone at Kohuora Auckland South Corrections Facility.

The videos were watched by hundreds of thousands of people within a short period before the inmate’s phone was confiscated and the was account removed last week.

However, videos from the prison were once more uploaded under the same account name on TikTok yesterday and again today.

The latest video shows an inmate taking a selfie video while two Corrections officers in the background can be seen talking to other prisoners.

The inmate smiles at the camera while giving the one-finger salute to the officers behind him.

Comments posted on TikTok include: “Yous look like yous are having the time of ur lives [sic].”

Another says: “Are yous allowed to have phones?”

A third person asks: “Can you get a message to my brother?”

A spokeswoman for Serco, which runs the prison, said the latest videos appeared to be a compilation recorded at different times and might have been sent to someone outside prison to post online.

“We believe this is historic footage,” the spokeswoman said.

All prisoners who were found with a phone faced disciplinary charges and were reported to police.

“We understand that images of prisoners online will cause distress to the victims of their offending,” the spokeswoman said.

“We have contacted the social media site about this post. Whenever we become aware of images or video posted on social media platforms, we ask the social media company to remove the offensive material.”

The @caposnake account, believed to be linked to a King Cobras member, had previously uploaded seven videos, including one featuring prison guards standing outside a cell.

One video, of a group of prisoners exercising, has been watched 115,000 times after it was uploaded less than 24 hours ago. Its title appears to mock authorities which shut down the previous account: “Always Active, We Ain’t Going Anywhere”.

Other videos show a group of inmates, some heavily tattooed, posing and making gang signs.

A video filmed of a staff search inside Auckland South Corrections Facility at Wiri went viral. Now the prisoner's phone has been confiscated. Photo / @caposnake

Last week, a Serco spokeswoman confirmed a prisoner used a mobile phone from within a cell to record a staff search. The phone was found and removed.

Serco said contraband was a challenge facing all New Zealand prisons.

In recent years, several prison officers have been prosecuted for smuggling contraband, including phones.

In 2017, an officer who was working at Mt Eden prison when it was operated by Serco was sentenced to home detention for smuggling tobacco, cellphones and prepaid calling cards to inmates in 2015.

Several people were charged with corruption and bribery after an investigation into corrupt guards at Rimutaka Prison in Wellington last year.

Earlier this year, former Spring Hill prison officer Scott Topham was jailed for two years for smuggling drugs into the Waikato prison in exchange for $3200 from a Black Power member.

Last month, a member of the Comancheros admitted his role in using smuggled cellphones to orchestrate a 200kg meth import from behind bars at Rimutaka.

And two years ago, the Herald revealed prisoners at Pāremoremo were filming themselves behind bars and posting the clips to TikTok.