When you think of prison, you don’t normally imagine a brothel where guards sleep with inmates and send them love letters. But sordid relationships between officers and prisoners are getting more common.
Government figures show 41 prison officers were caught in the act in the last five years, with an 85% increase last year alone. Almost 2% of all prison staffers were investigated for misconduct that year.
Experts say overcrowded prisons and undertrained staff create the perfect breeding ground for romances behind bars. Pia Sinha, Prison Reform Trust CEO, said: “When you have young, inexperienced staff going onto the landings, they have less life experience than sophisticated prisoners on the wings and can end up being manipulated.”
One shocking case at HMP Wandsworth saw a former officer filmed having sex with an inmate in their cell. The footage, shared online, exposed the married officer’s sordid relationship, and led to her being handed a 15 month prison sentence.
Linda De Sousa Abreu, mum of one, initially claimed she engaged in the relationship with convicted burglar Linton Weirich to avoid being exposed as an adult movie star, but prosecutors called her an “enthusiastic participant”. She was arrested whilst trying to flee the country.
A more recent case saw former officer Morgan Farr Varney, who “proper fell in love” with an inmate. She ended up being slapped with 10 months behind bars. After CCTV showed the couple ducking into a cupboard together, a search of the lag’s cell uncovered a stash of love letters.
Their jailhouse fling continued even after the inmate was transferred, with police later finding photos of Varney on the man’s phone. Varney admitted to the charge of misconduct in public office, and is now petitioning to increase the minimum age of prison officers.
Another officer from HMP Lindholme, 25-year veteran Claire Hall, was given a nine month sentence for a “serious and sordid” relationship with an inmate which saw them getting intimate in the prison toilets.
In Surrey, a prison governor was convicted in 2011 over a three-year relationship where he would “order” the inmate to perform sex acts. Russell Thorne would pay the female prisoner for the relations with cash or gifts.
A female former officer at The Mount Prison in Hertfordshire had her relationship with an inmate exposed when police saw the prisoner’s surname on their child’s birth certificate. Corinne Redhead, 29, was six months pregnant when police discovered a phone stashed in a cell with sexual messages between the pair.
Livvy Edney, 44, of Torquay, Devon was handed a six-month sentence for sleeping with a sex offender whilst in her role as a prison officer at HMP Channings Wood. Detective Sergeant Will Martel called the behaviour a “serious breach of her position”.
The alarming figures show that female officers are far more likely to engage in relationships with inmates than male ones. Women in men’s prisons received 72% of all sanctions for inappropriate relationships with prisoners between 2019 and 2024, openDemocracy reports.
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