07 September 2023 , 11:51
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A disgraced former prison officer who had an inappropriate relationship with an inmate and smuggled cannabis behind bars for him has been jailed.
Joanne Hunter kissed and sent explicit pictures of herself to the prisoner who she "thought was in love with her". Besotted Hunter brought the drug into the jail hidden in a juice carton and a Red Bull can. Prison authorities became aware of her behaviour and she confessed after being confronted. A judge described it as a "tragic" case and jailed Hunter for three years. He slammed her "selfish and misguided" behaviour.
Hunter, 28, wept and blew a kiss to her family before she was sent down to start her sentence. She was described in court as ‘highly educated’, having gained a Master's degree before beginning a job as a prison officer, her first work after completing her studies.
Joanne Hunter, former prison officer (Manchester Evening News)
Former prison officer Joanne Hunter (Manchester Evening News)Manchester Crown Court heard that Hunter began working at Forest Bank prison in Salford in December 2018. Two years later, prison bosses ‘received information’ that she had been smuggling illicit items into the jail, and she was hauled in for a disciplinary interview.
Hunter admitted that she’d smuggled items into the prison on behalf of an inmate named Connor Willis. He had come onto the wing where she worked, and at first, she didn’t like him because he was ‘arrogant’, but ‘as time went on he 'grew on her'. Hunter said they’d kissed ‘several times’ and that she’d sent him ‘explicit photos’. But she denied that it ever became sexual.
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Willis had given her his number and she would call him and send him messages. The court was told that he allegedly ‘arranged’ Hunter’s meeting with a woman at Tesco to hand over the package. Hunter said she’d brought the packages into the jail at the weekend, ‘when she knew that no one would search her due to staff restrictions as a result of Covid’.
She handed over the packages to a ‘big player’ inmate in the prison before they were passed on to Willis. Hunter said she didn’t know what was inside the packages but guessed it was ‘tobacco, burn and weed or a phone’.
Prior to one of the handovers, Willis had told her he ‘needed something to help him get through Christmas’, reports the M.E.N. Hunter also said that she’d exchanged ‘flirty banter’ and photographs with another inmate, and exchanged messages with other inmates following their release.
Asked if she’d been threatened to smuggle in packages, she told prison bosses: “No, I feel stupid.” She said she was offered up to £300 by Willis but she refused the cash. At one stage she claimed she felt her ‘life could be in danger’. Prosecutors were unable to identify the woman who Hunter had received the packages from, the court heard. Hunter pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office and conspiring to convey list A articles into prison.
Marie Durning, head of security at Forest Bank, said Hunter's behaviour undermines security, allows inmates to continue their criminal activity and leads to problems with discipline. Defending, Richard Orme described Hunter as being ‘naive’ and ‘vulnerable’. “She was ripe for the picking for unscrupulous criminals to take advantage of someone in their first job out of education,” he said.
“She has unfortunately fallen foul of the system by her own stupidity. She believed that this unscrupulous individual [Willis] loved her, she genuinely believed that. She believed that to prove that it was reciprocated she would agree to do what he asked.
“She is someone who has been manipulated into doing this. She was used by this particular individual, who she thought was in love with her, clearly, he was not. She is the one who suffers. She will not be able to work in public services, which is where she wants to work. She is deeply embarrassed, her family are deeply embarrassed. She is from a respectable, hard-working, decent and honest family. She has learnt a salutary lesson.”
The judge, Recorder Paul Hodgkinson, said she was jailing Hunter to deter others from doing the same. He told her: "You had the potential to be a very real asset to the prison service, not least considering your obvious intellect and intelligence. However, you chose a different path. You decided to abuse your position of trust. Your actions in relation to this criminality strike at the very heart of the criminal justice system. You put the public at risk, you put your fellow prison officers at risk, and of course, you put other vulnerable prison officers at risk by your actions."
Defending, Richard Orme described Hunter as being ‘naive’ and ‘vulnerable’. “She was ripe for the picking for unscrupulous criminals to take advantage of someone in their first job out of education,” he said.
The judge, Recorder Paul Hodgkinson, said she was jailing Hunter to deter others from doing the same. He told her: "You had the potential to be a very real asset to the prison service, not least considering your obvious intellect and intelligence. However, you chose a different path. You decided to abuse your position of trust. Your actions in relation to this criminality strike at the very heart of the criminal justice system. You put the public at risk, you put your fellow prison officers at risk, and of course you put other vulnerable prison officers at risk by your actions."
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