An ‘immature’ female prison officer who told her inmate lover the location of a rival prisoner he wanted to ‘do in’ has been jailed.
Ellis Eyles was 21 and working at HMP Deerbolt when she helped convict Mitchell Ingham by telling him the whereabouts of another rival he wanted to harm.
Ingham was serving a minimum term of 14 years at the County Durham prison for the 2015 murder of 21-year-old Dominic Doyle in a pub in Denton, Greater Manchester.
The pair’s romance was discovered after officers conducted a routine cell search at the young offenders unit and found an illicit iPhone and charger behind a false panel in a cabinet.
Antonia Adie, prosecuting, said phone analysis revealed that the pair had been in contact in June and July 2023, exchanging information such as phone numbers and addresses.
Durham Crown Court heard that Ingham asked Eyles about the whereabouts of another prisoner, saying he ‘will get him done in.’
Ingham complied and replied that he was in a segregation unit, the prosecution said.
In other messages, Ingham referred to Eyles as ‘babe’ and in one message she told him ‘I miss you xxx.’
Ellis Eyles was 21 and working at HMP Deerbolt when she helped convict Mitchell Ingham by telling him the whereabouts of another rival he wanted to harm
Mitchell Ingham (pictured) was serving a minimum term of 14 years at the County Durham prison for the 2015 murder of 21-year-old Dominic Doyle in a pub in Denton, Greater Manchester
One of their Facetime calls lasted 37 minutes, the court heard.
The court also heard that Eyles began acting as a go-between for Ingham and his family, passing on messages, including to his mother Diane Ingham, who was jailed alongside him trying to conceal his crime.
After the phone was discovered, Ingham was moved from Deerbolt to HMP Lindholme in Doncaster.
Ms Adie said: ‘On July 22nd 2023 Miss Eyles received a message from Ingham’s father to say he had been moved and asked her to go to the shop and to get a new number to give to him.’
Judge Richard Bennett jailed Eyles for eight months after she admitted a single count of misconduct in a public office at a previous hearing.
He said the offending was so serious that the jail term could not be suspended.
Judge Bennett said: ‘It is clear you were in some form of romantic relationship.
‘There is no evidence that it went beyond the exchange of words, however whatever type of relationship it was such relationships undermine the dedicated work of your colleagues who were carrying out their duty.
Eyles (pictured outside Durham Crown Court) has been jailed for eight months after she admitted a single count of misconduct in a public office at a previous hearing
Ingham, now 25, was sentenced to nine months at a previous hearing for offences related to possessing and using a phone in jail
‘It showed a failure of integrity and failure to uphold the rules equitably, which undermines the public’s confidence in the prison system.
‘In the full knowledge that you were committing an offence and he was committing an offence, you disclosed the details of another prisoner’s location knowing he was seeking to do him harm.’
Robert Mochrie, mitigating said that the then 21-year-old Eyles had been ‘manipulated’ by Ingham and was unprepared for the task she had taken on when she began working at Deerbolt.
He said: ‘What we have here is a young person of hitherto good character who fals into serious error by virtue of manipulation by the criminal mind. And this is what has happened to her eternal regret.’
Mr Mochrie questioned the level of training that the ‘young and immature’ Eyles received in her counter corruption training, which took place in a single morning session.
Mr Mochrie said Eyles, now 24, had an ‘incredible work ethic’ and was employed by a bank after she left the Prison Service, where she once saved a romantic scam victim from suffering more financial losses.
Ingham, now 25, was sentenced to nine months at a previous hearing for offences related to possessing and using a phone in jail. The sentence will run on when his life term is considered to be over.