Father Pierangelo Marchi was searched and interrogated after setting off a metal detector on his way into the Carinola prison near Naples, Il Mattino reports.

The priest told the newspaper that he was unaware that the packet of tobacco he was asked to deliver to prisoners contained mobile phones.

Father Marchi said he had “sinned of naïveté”, adding: “They fooled me and in doing this they put me in trouble and threw bad light on the Carinola prison, which does not need this label.”

Prison officers have said that imprisoned gangsters rely on mobile phones being smuggled in to “maintain their power” outside the prison.