Joanne Hunter, 28, conducted a relationship with Connor Willis while working at HMP Forest Bank in Salford.

Hunter – described as ‘naive’ and ‘vulnerable’ in court – believed Willis was ‘in love’ with her and agreed to smuggle packages, including cannabis, into prison for him. She also sent him explicit photographs, which were later found on her phone.

Manchester Crown Court heard how Hunter, who has a master’s degree in Childhood and Youth studies, began working at the prison in December 2018.

In December 2020, prison authorities received information that she was taking items inside and when she was interviewed by security managers she admitted having a relationship with Willis.

She smuggled packages, including some containing cannabis, inside the prison by passing them on to another prisoner – whom she knew as a ‘big player’ and a member of a crime gang – for Willis. Willis offered to pay her £200-300 for each package, but she refused to take the money.

Hunter, from Bury, Greater Manchester, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office and bringing or conveying cannabis into the prison at a hearing in March.

She pleaded not guilty to bringing or conveying an unauthorised mobile phone into the prison and that charge was laid on file. Richard Orme, defending, said that Hunter was a ‘naive, impressionable and vulnerable young woman’.

‘She was ripe for picking for an unscrupulous criminal to take advantage of her in her first job out of education,’ he said.

Mr Orme said Hunter had never had a serious relationship or boyfriend because ‘she was focused on her education’.

The judge, Recorder Paul Hodgkinson, jailed her for three years, saying her actions had ‘struck at the heart of the criminal justice system’ and discipline and order at the prison had been ‘severely undermined’, putting the public, fellow prison officers and other inmates at risk.

Aisha Golsby, 23, was working at HMP Portland in Dorset when she became involved with convict Deano Harrison.

Harrison, who was 21 at the time and who has convictions for robbery and drug dealing, struck up the illicit relationship with glamourous Golsby by messaging her on Instagram with a phone illegally smuggled into jail.

The besotted pair called and messaged each other, with the prisoner gushing he had ‘never felt love like it’ before while she wrote of how she trusted him with her heart.

While Golsby filed reports about other inmates having mobile phones, she failed to do so for Harrison because of her feelings for him – event tipping him off about cell searches so he could hide his phone.

His mobile was finally found and a search of it by Golsby’s shocked colleagues revealed the relationship between her and Harrison.

Golsby, from Weymouth, Dorset, was arrested and interviewed. She was suspended from her job before handing in her resignation two months later. She pleaded guilty to three counts of misconduct in a public office and was jailed at Bournemouth Crown Court.

Golsby started working at the HMP Portland in April 2020, when she was just 19 years old. Harrison initially made contact with her through Instagram in August 2021.

In one message Harrison wrote to her: ‘I have not felt like this about anyone. I never thought it would get deep, I didn’t think I would get attached to you. I’ve never felt love for someone in such a small amount of time.’

The search of his phone showed Golsby sent Harrison a message in January 2022, when she was concerned someone had found out about them saying ‘I trusted you with my whole f***ing heart, I really hope what you are saying is true’.

There were also 11 phone calls logged between them from January 23 until the phone was discovered in a cell search on January 28.

Harrison was moved to another prison but made several attempts to contact Golsby, with letters being intercepted by the prison service.

Golsby also sent him messages printed through Free Prints saying she was thinking of him in ‘affectionate terms’.

Hollie Gilbery, defending, told the court Golsby was a hardworking young woman with no previous convictions and very clear remorse ‘at her own stupidity’.

She sought to persuade judge Jonathan Fuller to give Golsby a suspended sentence. But in jailing her for 16 months he said misconduct in the prison service must be dealt with seriously by the courts.

Sarah Jane Williams, 38, of Widnes, Cheshire, was working at HMP Altcourse in Liverpool when she ‘fell into the traps and into the arms of sophisticated criminals’, her lawyers said.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the jail worker knew the inmates had mobile phones — but opted to begin exchanging messages and explicit images with them, rather than reporting their illegal devices to her bosses.

The court heard that these included ‘sexual messages and chat and images, intimate sexual chat’. 

Williams did not engage in any physical sexual contact with the people she was meant to be guarding.

The court heard that after finishing her training — which included training on ‘corruption prevention’ — she had been placed in the ‘Canal’ wing of Altcourse.

The mother-of-three was jailed for 18 months. 

Katie Loxton was a serving prison custody officer at HMP Oakwood in Staffordshire when she first met Adam Higgs, 32.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that Loxton, 27, would spend a large portion of her time on the block where Higgs was housed, which raised the suspicions of a number of her colleagues.

Further checks revealed that the pair had bypassed the prison’s security system and were communicating via a fake contact on Higgs’ telephone in his cell. Higgs made 3,451 calls to the number and spoke with Loxton for more than 380 hours.

The calls cost him a total of £798 between July 7, 2021 and January 13, 2022.

He also hid a mobile phone, which he then used to communicate with Loxton through social media. The court heard that the pair would often ‘perform sexual acts to each other’ while speaking on the phone.

Loxton was arrested and her home searched on January 27 last year. During the search, three handwritten letters from Higgs were found inside.

Higgs, of Grantham, Lincolnshire, was interviewed about the findings in prison in March 2022. The pair later admitted their offences in court.

Loxton, of Sandwell, West Midlands, also admitted transmitting or causing the transmission of an image/sound by electronic means from within a prison.

She was jailed for 12 months for misconduct in a public office.

Roxanne Walker, 34, was spotted by colleagues giggling with ‘manipulative’ prisoner Daniel Carter at the £250million HMP Berwyn in Wrexham, North Wales. She later confessed to police: ‘I’ve made a mistake. I’ve fallen in love with Daniel Carter; it’s completely wrong.’

Walker, whose marriage has now broken down, received a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, in addition to 200 hours of unpaid work.

The prison opened in 2017 and has been dubbed ‘Britain’s cushiest jail’ for its unconventional approach to incarceration, which includes referring to cells as ‘rooms’.

Walker admitted misconduct in a public office and cannabis possession.

In August 2022, Walker was spoken to in a support meeting – and she said she was ‘disappointed’ that her colleagues had reported her.

But the following month, Carter’s use of the prison’s phone system was investigated, and it emerged he’d added a female called ‘Leanna Baker’ to his list with whom he’d engaged in explicit conversations. It was in fact Walker.

Officers arrested Walker and searched her home, finding ‘personal use’ cannabis.

Andrew McInnes, defending, said: ‘In her words, she’d fallen in love with Daniel Carter; a prisoner who has, it seems, a history of conditioning behaviour towards staff members.

‘She realised she’d been manipulated. He told her what she wanted to hear. Her marriage was in difficulties and this was perhaps a vulnerable time in her life.’

In May, Judge Niclas Parry sentenced Walker to nine months – but was persuaded to suspend it for two years due to two ‘exceptional’ features in the case.

He ruled that her relationship had not resulted in any illegal items or assistance being given to the prisoner – and she is the single mother to a young dependent child.

Rachel Stanton, 31, admitted to wilful misconduct in public office after she entered a relationship with Edwin Poole while he was serving a 10-and-a-half year sentence for armed robbery in HMP Five Wells, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.

The mother-of-five’s romance with Poole was uncovered when prison staff found three intimate photographs and a sexy love letter in the Poole’s cell.

CCTV footage also caught the pair going into a prison storeroom for an hour of ‘intimacy’, Northampton Crown Court heard.

Stanton was suspended following the discovery of their relationship in July 2022 and Poole was moved to another prison. She continued to visit him and the lovers now have a child together but have since separated.

In July 2024, Stanton wept in the dock as she was sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for 18 months and ordered to take part in 20 days rehabilitation activity.