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Prison officer jailed for 'sexts' with inmate

A prison officer from the Black Country who exchanged texts of a sexual nature with an inmate before convincing another prisoner to retrieve the phone so she could get rid of it has been jailed.

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Kathryn Downing also smuggled DVDs into the prison where she worked to give to an inmate.

The 31-year-old mother, of Amblecote Road, Brierley Hill, sobbed in the dock at Worcester Crown Court as she was jailed for seven months.

Judge Toby Hooper QC said Downing became entangled in a web of criminality after reciprocating the advances of inmate Adam Sapwell at HMP Hewell in Redditch, where she had worked for six years.

She told police that she was 'flattered' by Sapwell's interest in her and gave him her phone number so he could communicate with her from his cell. In doing this, she ignored the fact inmates are not allowed to have mobile phones.

The pair exchanged several explicit messages, which she described as 'sexts', during a period of around 10 days shortly before Sapwell was due to be released.

Mr Michael Aspinall, prosecuting, said: "When her phone was analysed, officers found texts between her and another person, Adam Sapwell, of an intimate nature.

"They have been described as sexy and indicated a degree of intimacy and closeness and a desire to take things forward once Adam Sapwell was released from prison.

"When asked about Adam Sapwell she said he started flirting with her and she was flattered. She accepted some of the texts were explicit but said nothing physical had happened just."

After Sapwell left the prison, Downing started to become anxious that the phone Sapwell had used would be discovered and the messages she had sent be revealed, so she asked another prisoner, Ross Richards, who she described as a 'big player' in the prison, to retrieve the phone for her.

He did this and she dumped it in a bin at a pub she visited with fellow prison officers.

Richards then asked her to return the favour and bring some DVDs to him from outside the prison. He arranged for her to meet a mutual associate at Merry Hill shopping centre, who gave her the DVDs. She placed them into her bag and took them into the prison.

Downing was rumbled when another inmate was found with a phone and told police she was 'close' to Sapwell and Richards and had seen Richards give her a phone.

Mr Jonathan Barker, defending, said Downing, who is five months' pregnant and pleaded guilty to three counts of misconduct in public office, had been suffering problems at home prior to getting involved with the prisoners in November last year. He said her exchanges with Sapwell were 'fantasy not reality'.

He said: "She apologises for her actions, she is deeply remorseful and ashamed of her behaviour."

Judge Hooper said: "You were not just of good character you were of exemplary character, which was fitting of your work as a prison officer but you have fallen from your exemplary character.

"You will have recognised such circulation (of a phone) would allow prisoners to facilitate criminal activity."

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