A former prison officer has been jailed after she was caught on her own body-worn video camera performing a sex act on an inmate.

Rebecca Pinckard, 46, had the ‘intimate encounter’ with serving prisoner and convicted drug dealer Erion Nakdi, 42, in a store cupboard at HMP Highpoint in Suffolk, Cambridge Crown Court was told.

The mother, from Six Mile Bottom, Cambridgeshire, was captured performing a sex act on Nakdi in two video clips filmed five minutes apart on her own body-worn camera on July 5 2024, the court heard. 

The clips were found due to a ‘clumsy mistake’ by another officer who was reviewing body-worn camera footage for evidence. 

At the time, Pinckard had been going through a ‘difficult’ time after breaking up with her partner of 19 years and committed the act in a ‘moment of madness’, the court was told. 

She admitted at an earlier hearing to misconduct in a public office and was jailed on Friday for 32 weeks.

Pickard had previously sent a ‘loving’ Moonpig card to the Albanian national in a bid to ‘cheer him up’ after having problems with his girlfriend. 

The court heard Pinckard had been given a warning a year earlier for being ‘overfamiliar’ with prisoners and had previously ‘given out cakes and sweets’ to inmates to ‘make their lives better’. 

Former prison officer Rebecca Pinckard, 46, has been jailed after she was caught on her own body-worn video camera performing a sex act on an inmate

Pinckard is seen appearing at Cambridge Crown Court on January 16 after admitting to ‘wilfully misconducting’ herself

Convicted drug dealer Erion Nakdi, 42, who Pinckard had the ‘intimate encounter’ with in a store cupboard at HMP Highpoint in Suffolk, Cambridge

Judge Anthony Cartin said Pinckard’s offending was ‘only discovered because of a clumsy mistake’. 

He said: ‘An officer gathering evidence found evidence from your camera. Your camera had been activated during the intimate encounter.’

Judge Cartin continued: ‘The offence wasn’t a one-off – it went on for a number of months and the card was sent.’

Jailing Pinckard, he said that her ‘conduct diminishes the public confidence in the criminal justice system’.

Prosecutor Mr Burrell said it was discovered that Pinckard had sent Nakdi a Moonpig card on April 10 2024.

He said sexual videos of Nakdi in his prison cell were recovered from Pinckard’s mobile phone and ‘it’s accepted the videos were filmed in prison then sent via social media by messaging’.

The judge noted that Pinckard did not report it to authorities when she received the sexual videos.

Nakdi, who appeared in court by prison video link, admitted at an earlier hearing to the unauthorised possession of a mobile phone in prison between July 2 and July 6 2024.

He was jailed for 10 months consecutive to his existing sentence, of 16 years and three months over a conspiracy to supply class A drugs, for which he was sentenced at Luton Crown Court in 2022.

Rebecca Pinckard, 46, after appearing in front of Suffolk Magistrates’ Court on November 5

Rory Keene, for Nakdi, described the unauthorised device as a ‘pool phone’.

Mr Keene said: ‘This is really a tragic case of an emotional attraction between two people.’ He described the Moonpig card as a ‘loving card’.

Juliet Donovan, mitigating for Pinckard, said it was a ‘moment of madness’ and said it was ‘not a relationship’.

She said Pinckard had been in a ’19-year relationship – she had just left that relationship’ and ‘her home life at the time… was particularly difficult’.

Ms Donovan said Pinckard ‘never gave (Nakdi) her mobile phone number so there’s no question of repeated text messages’.

She said Pinckard sent the Moonpig card as Nakdi ‘explained he had been having problems with his girlfriend’ and Pinckard wanted ‘to try to cheer him up’.

The court heard Pinckard had been given a warning in October 2023 after being ‘overfamiliar’ with prisoners.

Ms Donovan said that Pinckard’s ‘giving of cakes and sweets’ was ‘naively and stupidly trying to make the lives of prisoners somewhat better’.

Pinckard wiped tears from her eyes at moments during Friday’s sentencing, and appeared tearful as she was led to the cells.