Two prison workers are in hot water after it was revealed that they smuggled drugs and mobiles into jail after falling head over heels for a pair of lags, and even got their initials tattooed on them.
Amy Portwood and Adrienne Juniper, both from Leigh, were smitten with convicted Manchester robbers Darren McAndrew and Philip Phythian. They sneaked contraband into the prison where they worked and exchanged a flurry of “overtly sexual” texts and WhatsApp messages with their jailbird boyfriends.
Liverpool Crown Court was told last week that Phythian was serving a six-year sentence for robbery and possession of a bladed article in public at HMP Risley in Warrington in late 2021. Meanwhile, McAndrew was doing an extended 12-year stretch for robbery and aggravated vehicle robbery.
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(Image: North West Regional Organised Crime Unit)
The prosecution said Portwood and Juniper were “regular visitors” to the category C prison as care workers, and they were supposed to be looking after a disabled inmate.
Instead, they got caught up in “romantic relationships” with Phythian and McAndrew, reports the Manchester Evening News.
Portwood’s phone was found to have been used to make a staggering 1,134 phone calls to the inmate over a one-month period, as well as 294 text messages. The pair had also shared over 1,000 WhatsApp messages between November 2021 and January 2022, including images that had since been deleted from Portwood’s device.
Some of these messages were said to be “overtly sexual in their content”, while others referenced “tiny phones” and “sniff”, Mr Astbury said.
(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Juniper and McAndrew, meanwhile, called each other 60 times and exchanged 1,598 texts, with some also being “sexual in nature”. These included topless snaps of McAndrew which he had sent to Juniper.
On the morning of January 7, 2022, a sniffer dog was said to have “taken an interest” in Juniper and jumped up at her as she and McAndrew attended work. However, she “passed this off” by telling colleagues that she was wearing perfume and was allowed to continue into the prison, the court heard.
Juniper, 35, and Portwood then visited Kelly’s cell, where Phythian and McAndrew “loitered in the vicinity” before speaking with the two employees. The women were spotted on CCTV taking their patient to the shower in his wheelchair, which had an “out of place” blue bodywarmer on the back.
(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Five suspicious packages were found sewn into her clothes, including tobacco, a mobile, two USB sticks, cannabis worth £2,880, herbal cannabis valued at £1,850, £600 of cocaine, £200 of crack cocaine and £240 of heroin.
When cops raided Juniper’s house, they discovered £3,530 in cash and £500 worth of Turkish lira. Another £348 was found in Portwood’s bedroom.
The court heard that the 41-year-old, from Warrington, had the letter “P” tattooed on her forearm in an apparent nod to Phythian. Similarly, Juniper had a tattoo of the letter “D” on one of her fingers.
In a shocking twist, Ms Portwood, who was seduced into criminality by a fellow conspirator, admitted to smuggling contraband into prison thinking she had found romance. Portwood, visibly emotional and nodding, was slapped with a 22-month stint in the clink.
Juniper dodged a direct hit with a 22-month suspended sentence, alongside 160 hours of unpaid graft and up to 30 days of rehab activities. Tears streamed down her face as she avoided immediate jail time. The inmates snagged an extra three years and nine months in jail on Thursday.
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