A prison officer has been jailed after kissing and sitting on the lap of a prisoner she was dating at HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire.
29-year-old Toni Cole sent 4,431 texts and calls, many of which were’sexualised or flirtatious’, to a 28-year prisoner over five months – including a photograph of underwear, Northamptonshire Police said.
She had spent ‘considerable time’ with the prisoner, who she admitted to kissing on at least one occasion.
The relationship only came to light during a meeting in January 2023 about an unauthorised overtime shift she had worked days earlier.
During that meeting, CCTV footage of the shift showed the prisoner with his arm around Cole, which raised suspicion.
Her phone was soon seized, and at least 18 video calls between the pair and thousands of messages were discovered.
Cole pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office and was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay £187 at Northampton Crown Court.
Police also found Cole had sat on the inmate’s lap and ‘promised to tip him off’ if she found out his cell was going to be ‘spun’ by her colleagues.
Detective Inspector Richard Cornell, from East Midland special operations unit’s regional prison intelligence unit, said: ‘Toni Cole knew what she was doing was totally inappropriate, and that her behaviour was not only putting her at risk but also the safety of her colleagues and inmates.
‘The majority of prison staff carry out their duties to the highest standards, and I hope this sentence sends a clear message to those who seek to undermine public trust while holding positions of authority that inappropriate relationships will be robustly dealt with using the full force of the law.’
Earlier this year, a married mum-of-one was jailed for 15 months after pleading guilty to misconduct in a public office at Isleworth Crown Court.
Prison officer Linda De Sousa Abreu, 31, was filmed having sex with convicted burglar Linton Weirich by another lag at HMP Wandsworth in south London on June 25 last year.
Jailing her, Judge Martin Edmunds told Abreu: ‘You participated with evident enthusiasm.’
The judge said Dr Kooyman ‘diagnosed a borderline personality disorder’ which, combined with ADHD, makes Abreu ‘highly impulsive and reckless so that you tend to act without considering the consequences’.
A Prison Service spokesperson said at the time: ‘While the overwhelming majority of Prison Service staff are hardworking and honest, we’re catching more of the small minority who break the rules by bolstering our Counter Corruption Unit and strengthening our vetting processes.
‘As today’s sentencing demonstrates, where officers do fall below our high standards we won’t hesitate to take robust action.’
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