I’m a psychotherapist… I do know why feminine jail officers like Linda De Sousa Abreu maintain falling for ‘dangerous boy’ inmates – and why the lags like it

Female prison officers who become embroiled in illegal affairs with ‘bad boy’ inmates have low-self worth and insecurities manipulative prisoners can spot ‘from a mile off’, a psychotherapist has revealed.

Prison officer Linda De Sousa Abreu, 31, shocked the nation when she was filmed romping with serial burglar Linton Welrich in a HMP Wandsworth prison cell last June. 

The disgraced officer, who is originally from Brazil and is a married swinger, was later arrested at Heathrow Airport while travelling with her father but denied trying to flee the country. 

On Monday she was sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court to 15 months in prison, but will likely serve less than a third of the time behind bars at HMP Bronzefield in a wing alongside serial baby murderer Lucy Letby and Sara Sharif‘s killer stepmother. 

Last October Cheryl Hinde, 44, who worked at HMP Kirkham was jailed for four months after she had a relationship with an inmate, which saw them spend hours on the phone together as they regularly swapped love letters. 

Prison officer Hannah Angwaba, 30, was sentenced to four years in June after smuggling drugs, tobacco and mobile phones into HMP Forest Bank using her braided hair during her romance with a convicted paedophile Anton McPherson. 

Elsewhere in north Wales, Wrexham, law graduate and prison lag Jessica McClearly dodged jail after sparking a romance with an inmate, which saw the pair sleep together after his release. It ended after she became pregnant but miscarried.    

Now Kamalyn Kaur – a Cheshire-based psychotherapist with over a decade of experience providing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) – has revealed why prison officers like De Sousa continue to risk it all for their dangerous inmates.

Ms Kaur exclusively told MailOnline: ‘I think if there was a psychological assessment done, there would definitely be certain traits that these people would have because there’s a certain type of person that will be easily influenced in this environment.

‘It boils down to these people being very insecure in themselves or having a low self-worth. They are not happy in other areas of their life.’

Adding how often unhappy officers who have ‘challenging times’ romp behind bars she added: ‘They’re looking for a little bit of an escape. I guarantee you that these are the things they will have in common.’

The psychotherapist revealed these types of women often become ‘addicted to the adrenaline’ that come with the sordid affairs behind bars with ‘risk-taking’ prisoners.

‘Most people think that is falling in love – that’s not falling in love, that’s the adrenaline in your body making you feel that way,’ the mental health professional said. 

‘Basically what people become addicted to, they confuse that with genuine feelings of attraction and love when it’s actually not.’ 

It comes after De Sousa Abreu told a consultant forensic psychiatrist, who prepared a report for sentencing, that she ‘loved’ Welrich and was planning to continue their relationship after his release – because he made her feel ‘like a gangster’.

Dr Iain Kooyman, who found she suffered from severe borderline personality disorder and ADHD, said she told him she had never felt as safe as when she was with Weirich.

Ms Kaur explained that these illegal encounters often come to fruition due to the lag’s boosted ego within the prisoner-officer power dynamic. 

‘I think for the female prison guards this boosted power dynamic takes place, especially if you’re not feeling powerful, wanted, or in control in other areas of your life,’ Ms Kaur added.  

‘This power dynamic can lead them into situations right where they feel more powerful. 

‘They might feel like they’ve got more control in that situation and make them feel important.’

The psychotherapist also revealed that the ‘abnormal conditions’ of the ‘very cold, dull and grey’ prisons normalises the heinous crimes committed by their locked up lovers. 

‘Because you’re working in such close proximity the crimes they have done and the way they are – you’ll become desensitised to them due to the environment,’ she said.

‘So what happens is you kind of lose that rationale because you’re too close. You’re right in the woods,’ she added. 

‘When you take a step back, and you look at the wider picture sometimes, then you realise the gravitas or the seriousness of the actual situation. 

‘But when you’re in it its hard to see because you are in a contained environment where it becomes your normal.’

All these traits and thus ‘vulnerabilities’ of these guards can be detected ‘from a mile off’ by thugs behind bars, according to Ms Kaur.  

‘Prison officers with these traits are quite vulnerable, so they’re going to be easily manipulated and easily moulded. 

‘All that needs to happen is for them to be made to feel important, and then they would probably be quite adaptable, and you probably would be able to get whatever you want from them.’

She added: ‘What we need to remember is this is what these inmates actually do.

‘They prey on vulnerable people for goodness sake, so they will be able to spot somebody that’s vulnerable from a mile off.’

Although she believes the dreary prison environments are a factor, the psychotherapist thinks these types of female prison guards would still be attracted to these ‘bad boys’ in the world beyond jail.  

‘They probably would still be attracted to that bad boy energy, but probably just not in a prison environment because there is something about that type of personality they’re drawn to,’ she said.

Ms Kaur divulged that the attraction to ‘risk taker’ ‘bad boys’ who defy societal norms is rooted in our evolutionary brains. 

‘The reason why people would be more attracted to that is, for a man to present that kind of masculine energy, that adventure, that sense of assertiveness, back in the day would have increased chances of survival and safety,’ she said. 

‘If we go far back in history, men with these kind of traits like men – that were willing to fight, were competitive and willing to push past others – these are the ones that probably would have survived based on evolution.’

The psychotherapist believes more needs to be done so that better systems are in place to protect both inmates and female prison guards alike behind bars. 

‘I do think there needs to be a lot of change and it needs to be institutional,’ she said. 

‘There needs to be more thorough checks done and they need to look for certain traits in people. 

‘And it can’t just be a one off thing either, it must have ongoing assessments carried out to keep on top of things.’