A child was accidentally recruited by bungling prison bosses to look after murderers and terrorists, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Emily Frith worked as a prison officer at HMP Erlestoke in Devizes, Wiltshire, while still aged just 17.
While working for the prison she says she witnessed corruption including female staff having affairs with inmates and staff smuggling in contraband.
The latest in a series of bungles by the Prison Service, Emily was given her own set of keys and radio and allowed to patrol prison wings, check visitors for contraband and carry out headcounts before inmates were locked in their cells for the night.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, she said: ‘It’s shocking, prisons are supposed to be secure but nobody even did basic checks on me. Where was the safeguarding? I was a child placed in a dangerous environment and I could easily have been seriously hurt.
‘At the time I thought it was a great job, I was earning a fortune for a 17-year-old. I was shadowing another officer but I was still out there chatting with inmates, helping with bang up, helping with counting. I was doing everything a trained prison officer would do.
‘It’s embarrassing from the government. No wonder prisons are in the state they are in.’
While working in the Category C men’s prison, Emily says she encountered mass murderers, notorious drug dealers and terrorist Manfo Kwaku Asiedu the so-called fifth London bomber who is serving a life sentence after he abandoned his device on the morning of the July 21, 2005 attacks.
Emily Frith, pictured, was accidentally recruited by bungling prison bosses to look after murderers and terrorists aged 17
She says she witnessed corruption including female staff having affairs with inmates and staff smuggling in contraband
Her age was only discovered by accident more than two weeks after she joined when she applied for mileage expenses for driving to training and a colleague noticed the date of birth on her driver’s licence.
Emily had applied for an apprenticeship on the Ministry of Justice website while still studying at college in Swindon, Wiltshire, and sent copies of her birth certificate and driver’s licence that included her date of birth.
Despite her age being obvious from documents she was interviewed, underwent enhanced background and security checks before she was offered the £28,000 per year job and began work in October 2021.
Emily, now 21 and working as a dog walker, was initially accused of lying about her age until prison bosses realised their error.
Instead she was suspended on full pay for two months until her 18th birthday when she was reinstated and worked for a further 18 months before quitting.
She said: ‘Working there has ruined my life, I’m traumatised by it. Not so much from the prisoners but from the other staff who are vile.
‘The corruption inside jails was insane. I was the straightest one in there because I followed the rules to the book.
‘People on the outside don’t realise how corrupt it is, I reported people but they stayed on even in senior positions.
She worked as a prison officer at HMP Erlestoke in Devizes, Wiltshire while still a teenager
Emily was given her own set of keys and radio and allowed to patrol prison wings, check visitors for contraband and carry out headcounts
‘But there were other 18 and 19-year-olds shagging inmates and smuggling in phones and all sorts for prisoners.
‘At one point I was on the gate and I tried to search a very senior staff member as he came in, he refused so I called the duty manager who told me to just let him through.
‘Why would he refuse a search?
‘While I was there we had a DST (designated search team) raid where they found iPads, iPhones, 32inch TVs in cells. There were so many phones and loads of drugs – the only way so much stuff could’ve come in is bent officers.
‘Once when I was in the control room we had a code red which means a patient is bleeding and the protocol is to call 999. My manager told me not to and I ignored her and called an ambulance. She went ballistic and screamed at me because it was created more paperwork for her.’
Emily’s job was offered under the Prison Officer Entry Level Training (POELT) scheme which will accept applications from 17-year-olds but they cannot start work until after they turn 18.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: ‘This government inherited a prisons system in crisis and we are urgently reviewing the circumstances of this historic case.
‘Ms Frith had not commenced live prison officer duties and, once her age was discovered, she was placed on authorised leave until she turned 18.’
While working in the Category C men’s prison, Emily says she encountered mass murderers, notorious drug dealers and terrorist Manfo Kwaku Asiedu the so-called fifth London bomber during the July 21, 2005 attacks
A source said that recruits’ date of birth is verified at multiple stages throughout the recruitment process to ensure all applicants meet the minimum age requirement of 18 on the date of appointment to the Prison Officer role.
This week Justice Secretary David Lammy confirmed there had been a further 12 accidental releases of prisoners over the past month – two of whom are still at large.
The Ministry of Justice previously released figures three weeks ago that showed 91 accidental releases took place between April 1 and October 31 this year.
But Mr Lammy revealed on BBC Breakfast this morning that since he provided that total to MPs on November 11, another 12 inmates had been released in error.
Algerian migrant sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was mistakenly freed from scandal-hit HMP Wandsworth on October 29, while British national William ‘Billy’ Smith was also released before turning himself in.
Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was serving time for trespass with an intent to steal but has previously committed a sexual offence of indecent exposure.
He was accidentally released from the south London prison on October 29 but the mistake was only reported to the Met Police at 1pm on Tuesday, November 4, raising serious questions over why it took nearly a week for the force to be informed.
The Algerian’s accidental release also marks another humiliating blow to the Government who are still scrambling to recover from the fallout of migrant sex attacker Hadush Kebatu being mistakenly freed from HMP Chelmsford just days ago.
Kebatu, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping, Essex, was freed in error on October 24 before he was arrested in Finsbury Park, north London, three days later.
The Ethiopian migrant, whose offences sparked protests outside the asylum seeker hotel he was staying in and around the country, was deported to his home country last Tuesday. He was paid £500 in taxpayers’ money to leave after threatening to disrupt his removal.