A prison officer, who told an inmate “I’m literally praying to have your babies” in what the judge called the “worst case of its kind” that he can remember, has been jailed.
Charlotte Winstanley, now 27, started a sexual relationship with gang member Jabhari Blair, 30, soon after she started working at the Lindholme Prison, near Doncaster.
She was found to have smuggled in a range of contraband materials for him, including a mobile phone over which they sent intimate photos and videos.
Winstanley has now been jailed for two-and-a-half years at Sheffield Crown Court.
The court heard how messages uncovered between Winstanley and Blair included them saying how Mondays were their “date nights”.
She also bragged to a colleague that she was “having sex daily and it was the best sex she ever had”.
Prosecutor Aaron Dinnes read out graphic sexual messages between the pair which he said appeared to prove that their relationship was sexual and he told a judge that prison cameras picked up intimate moments of them touching and disappearing together into rooms.
Mr Dinnes said one message from Blair indicated that he “can’t wait to give Miss Winstanley a beautiful baby”.
He said a message from the prison officer to the inmate said: “I’m literally praying to have your babies.”
(Image: Facebook)
Another message from Winstanley, under the pseudonym ‘Debbie Embleton’, she said: “Life starts now, baby. Every sacrifice I make I do so I can be with you. I love my job but I love you more.”
Blair also messaged about Winstanley about her “little booty” and who he wanted to be with his “beautiful baby”.
The prosecutor explained how Winstanley “acted as his link to outside”, with investigators even finding a link he provided to the Argos website, detailing items he wanted smuggling into prison.
He said Winstanley even went to see Blair’s mother at her home in Leeds.
(Image: Facebook)
Mr Dinnes said that, after she was suspended from duty and Blair was moved to another jail, Winstanley signed up as a visitor and undertook online meetings with him at his new prison, with the relationship lasting around three years in total.
The prosecutor said there was also evidence Winstanley passed Blair information about prisoner movements, other inmates’ health care and a search of his own cell.
He said this was extremely serious as Blair was a member of an organised crime group who was jailed for 12-and-a-half years for violence in 2014.
(Image: Facebook)
At the verdict on Friday, Winstanley cried in the dock as the judge said to her: “For a prison officer, young or old, to have conducted a sexual affair with a prisoner is bad enough.
“For it to be over a prolonged period of time worsens the matter.
“And, then, to be a party to smuggling in various items and to brazen it out when prison officials raise issues and give you an opportunity to confess – and it gets worse.”
He told Blair he had “corrupted a prison officer” and this was “about as bad as it gets”.
Judge Richardson KC also told Winstanley and Blair last week: “This is arguably the worst case of its kind I have personally dealt with.”
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