A JAILED drugs kingpin has wed his sweetheart after astonishingly being granted a day release.
Two officers even drove Benjamin Connor, 27, on the 30-mile round trip to the register office.
The decision has left Justice Minister Robert Buckland “absolutely furious”.
And it comes as thousands of law-abiding couples struggle to marry due to Covid rules.
Yet Connor managed to wed Adele Hunter, 26, on Tuesday — despite being just seven months into a six-year sentence for trafficking £120,000 of cocaine.
The bride put pictures and videos online, showing her in her dress and the groom suited.
He was escorted from HMP Humber, East Yorks, to Goole Register Office — the two-hour trip all paid for by the prison.
The pair were snapped kissing and Connor was joined by his two kids, including a baby.
A senior Tory source said: “Mr Buckland is absolutely furious a governor thought this a sensible use of temporary release.
“This rule is in place to visit dying relatives, not to go on a jolly. What next? Lags out for a round of golf? It is not government policy to let drug traffickers out for weddings!”
Adele, of Leeds, said: “The staff that escorted my other half were so understanding. I’m on Cloud Nine.”
Pandemic restrictions mean there are an estimated 824,000 weddings in the pipeline.
Connor, previously jailed for drug supply, had almost 7lb of cocaine when stopped last July at Wakefield, West Yorks. He rammed one police vehicle out of the way and tried to flee.
At Leeds crown court he admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply, having criminal property plus a driving charge and was jailed in September.
It has emerged HMP Humber let Connor out after he said he had a “right to marry” under human rights laws.
But insiders say the governor overstepped his mark.
A Ministry of Justice source said: “We are awaiting a satisfactory explanation.”
IT’S a heart-warming scene at first glance.
The beaming bride, all in white, kissing her new hubby.
“I’m on Cloud Nine,” she gushes. Her new husband’s not.
He’s back down to earth in the prison where he should have been all along.
It beggars belief that its governor saw fit to let a twice-jailed, hardened coke dealer out for the day to marry.
Such concessions are meant for mourning close relatives, not wedding jaunts.
And, with a massive nationwide backlog of weddings thanks to Covid, how did a lag get priority?
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland must tighten day release rules.
And consider whether such soft-touch chiefs should be running our prisons.
