A Welsh jail has seen 18 of its female officers being fired for having relationships with inmates, according to Ministry of Justice figures. The forbidden liaisons all happened at HMP Berwyn near Wrexham, Britain’s biggest prison which is home to more than 2,000 male inmates.
The Mirror repots that the chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association blamed the illicit flings on "the wrong kind of women" being hired for the demanding role.
A Prison Service spokesman said the majority of staff are "hard-working and honest" but the service was doing more to catch the small number who break the rules.
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In the last four years, three prison officers at Berwyn - Emily Watson, Ayshea Gunn and Jennifer Gavan - have been jailed having sexual and romantic relationships with offenders.
Watson had a sexual relationship with drug dealer John McGee who was serving eight years for causing death by dangerous driving after knocking down and killing a man while he was trying to escape from police. Watson and McGee had sex in the inmate's cell on a number of occasions - including Christmas Day - and kept in regular contact using a secret phone, and Watson also sent him naked pictures and videos of herself.
Gunn was a probationary officer at Berwyn when she began a relationship with armed robber Khuram Razaq. The pair exchanged "highly sexualised and pornographic" photographs, sent each other explicit sexual videos, and live streamed footage of themselves engaging in sexual acts. On one occasion Gunn smuggled a pair of her knickers into the prison for Razaq
Gavan had a relationship with robber Alex Coxon which including kissing him, sending photos via WhatsApp, and accepting £150 to smuggle a mobile phone into the jail for him.
Al three officers were jailed for misconduct in public office, and following the jailings bosses at the Welsh prison introduced new anti-corruption training for staff.
According to the results of a Freedom of Information request, a total of 31 female officers in England and Wales have been dismissed for inappropriate relationships since 2019. They include one officer who had an inmate’s baby.
Mark Fairhurst, chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, blamed the flings on "the wrong kind of women" without the necessary life experience being hired for the job. He said: "Staff being recruited don’t have face-to-face interviews… it’s all done on Zoom. A lot of people getting these jobs don’t have enough life experience and are susceptible to conditioning from prisoners. Your figures just prove what we’ve been warning the employer about for years."
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