Glam jail officer jailed for sending naughty lingerie pics to violent inmate
Her Honour Judge Sarah Buckingham said one of the devices showed screenshots the defendant had sent to the lag of herself ‘wearing red lingerie and with her breasts exposed’
Pinchbeck is now banged up behind bars(Image: Stoke Sentinel)
A female prison guard has been banged up for sending saucy snaps of herself in lingerie to a violent thug she was supposed to be guarding in jail.
Glamorous Heather Pinchbeck, 28, also made series of secret phone calls as well as exchanging text messages with inmate Joseph Hardy, 31, who is thought to have shared the raunchy photos with other lags.
She had just ended a relationship with an abusive boyfriend when she met Hardy and sent him the pics of herself “with her breasts exposed” while he was locked up at HMP Dovegate, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
The single mother-of-one previously pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office and was this week jailed for six months by a judge who said “her stupidity” could have put her at “risk of blackmail and exploitation”.
Pinchbeck was a prison custody officer at the Category B male jail in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, at the time of the offence in 2023. She was helping guard Hardy, who is serving a 14-year stretch after severing a defenceless man’s left leg in an attack in broad daylight.
Prosecutor Antonie Muller told the court Pinchbeck – who has a four-year-old daughter – had separated from her partner and was feeling “vulnerable” and enjoyed the attention from Hardy, the Daily Mail reports.
Pinchbeck resigned from her job which she had held for ten months, but was not arrested until January 5, 2024, when two phones were recovered.
Her Honour Judge Sarah Buckingham said one of the devices showed screenshots the defendant had sent to Hardy of herself “wearing red lingerie and with her breasts exposed”.
Judge Buckingham told Pinchbeck her actions had “damaged public confidence in the judicial system”, adding: “You let down yourself and your prison colleagues. Your conduct was out of character. You were vulnerable after leaving an abusive relationship.”
She added that it appeared that on the first device “Hardy must have shared it with a fellow prisoner” and that it “may have been passed among the prison population.”
The court was told Pinchbeck had feared a mental breakdown and had sought advice from her doctor. She had written a personal letter of apology to the court, and among supporters in the public gallery was a colleague from her new company.
The court heard she was a single “devoted mother” living with her parents, brother and child at the family home and juggling work and looking after her daughter who was her “main priority”.
The judge praised Pinchbeck for “turning her life around” and “building a brighter and positive future for you and your child”, but told her: “I have no alternative but to impose a custodial sentence of six months. It is not a sentence I pass without careful thought and consideration.”
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