The press watchdog has dismissed a drug dealer’s claim that a story about him allegedly publishing an image of his penis from prison was “one-sided”.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation has rejected a complaint against the Liverpool Echo by Kevin Thompson after it ran a story about a woman’s claim that he had sent an explicit ‘Snapchat’ to her while serving a jail sentence.

The Echo reported that the woman had phoned and emailed the prison facility where Thompson, pictured, was incarcerated in order to report the matter, and that this had led to him being moved from the open prison to a Category B facility.

But the convict took the Echo to IPSO under Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors’ Code of Practice on the grounds that he had in fact been moved to a Category C prison. He also said that he had not been moved for sending Snapchat messages, as he considered the story implied, but rather for having a phone in his possession.

Thompson further claimed the story was one-sided and did not include his side of the story, while the Prison Service and courts had not commented on the specifics of the story and allegations.

He said that the story was based on hearsay, and that he did not consider that the Echo had taken any steps to verify the allegations against him.

The Echo accepted that it was inaccurate to report that Thompson had been moved to a “Category B” facility, but did not consider this to be a significant inaccuracy and denied any further breaches of Code.

IPSO found Thompson been incarcerated at the time, which restricted the Echo’s ability to seek his comment.

It had, instead, sought comment from the Prison Service in relation to the allegations, and the organisation’s comment was included in the story.

The Committee did not consider that the difference between a Category B prison and a Category C prison was significant in circumstances where both categories were closed prison environments.

The complaint was not upheld, and the full adjudication can be read here.