Exclusive:
New figures come just days after “immature” female prison officer Katie Evans, 26, was jailed for 21 months after starting an intimate relationship with an inmate at Doncaster Prison
A shameful roll call of 40 women prison officers have been fired over the last four years after they were uncovered having illicit relationships with male inmates.
Figures we uncovered show behind bars flings are on the rise – raising urgent security fears. The revelation comes just days after “immature” female prison officer Katie Evans, 26, a mother-of-one was jailed for 21 months after starting an intimate relationship with an inmate at Doncaster Prison.
Her trial heard she had more than 140 phone calls with convicted burglar Daniel Brownley, moved money around bank accounts for him and supplied him with information the prison held on him. She also boasted to a former prison officer that she had performed a sex act on the inmate, and the defendant referred to herself as “your queen” when talking to Brownley.
Figures show the number of women warders being fired for having what are described as “inappropriate” relationships with inmates has trebled in recent years. Recent cases have included woman warders having storeroom romps, falling pregnant with convict’s children and allegedly cutting holes in their uniforms to help facilitate sex sessions.
There have also been claims that some jailed inmates were offering female guards up to £2,000 for illegal behind bars sex. Her trial heard offences like hers make life worse for women officers and their families, as they can be subjected to abuse and harassment.
Other women officers have said the crimes can lead to inmates making “sexual approaches” to them and they are seen as “fair game”. While the children of women officers have reported being teased about what their mothers do when they are at work.n Now Ministry of Justice statistics relating to prison warder discipline show she is far from alone in taking part in illegal sex sessions with the male convicts.
In total in the last four years there have been 40 cases where women guards were sacked because of an inappropriate relationship with a male inmate. By contrast over the same time period there was just one case where a male warder was fired for having an illicit affair with a woman prisoner.
The MoJ revealed there were also a handful of cases over the last four years for improper same sex relationships between inmates and warders where the guard was fired.n In total in the last four years there were 180 separate investigations within the prison service into guards having inappropriate relationships with prisoners or recently released inmates.
These cases resulted in 73 cases where disciplinary action was taken against the warder, with the vast majority being fired. The 40 cases where women warders were fired for illicit relationships in the last four years mean the annual average is ten cases every year. In the period from 2017 to 2019 the annual average was just three per year.
Other women warders who have been busted for their prison sex sessions include Linda De Sousa Abreu, 31. She was jailed for 15 months this year after being caught when a film of her having sex with an inmate at London’s Wandsworth jail surfaced on social media. De Sousa Abreu, who admitted misconduct in a public office, was said to have “participated with evident enthusiasm” in the activity.
Toni Cole, 29, was jailed for 12 months after she kissed and sat on the lap of a 28-year-old prisoner she had been in a relationship with at HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire. Over a five-month period, she shared 4,431 texts and calls with the prisoner which were “sexualised or flirtatious” in nature, including a photograph of underwear.
Rachel Stanton, a 31-year-old G4S guard, had an illicit romance at HMP Five Wells, in Northamptonshire, with convicted robber Edwin Poole, who is serving a 10-year-sentence. The pair were caught on CCTV spending an hour in a locked storeroom and Stanton, who was given a suspended prison sentence for the affair, fell pregnant with his child.
Stephanie Smithwhite got into a relationship with drug kingpin Curtis Warren , 56, and got a tattoo of his name during their affair at HMP Frankland, near Durham, in 2018. It was alleged she even cut a hole in her trousers to help them have intercourse more easily. The 44-year-old was jailed for two years in 2020. Shania Begum, 25, was jailed for 16 months in 2024 for conducting an affair with prisoner Joshua Mullings at HMP Birmingham. A storeroom spy camera filmed her having sex with the Mullings who she said made her feel ‘cherished’.
Kevin Moore, retired Detective Chief Superintendent, and former Head of CID at Sussex Police, said: “Whilst it may not be politically correct to say so nowadays, these statistics do beg the question as to why we have female prison officers in male prisons and vice versa? To my mind, most of these illicit relationships could be prevented straight away if we only had male officers in male prisons and female officers in female prisons.
“Whilst this does not deal with same sex relationships, my understanding is that such events account for only a small number of such matters. Looking at the positive aspect of these reports it does appear that at least such matters are being identified and dealt with, but we don’t know how many cases are going undiscovered.”
Separate statistics show 33 prison officers were disciplined in the last four years for trafficking illegal items into prisons, such as drugs and phones. There were 84 cases of disciplinary measures being imposed on guards in the same four year period for falling asleep on duty and 39 for corruption linked offences. And another set of separate statistics from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) also show that the level of sexual assaults being carried out on guards by inmates has hit record levels.
Last year there were 116 attacks where prison officers were said to have been the victim of a sexual assault from an inmate. It is the highest level ever recorded by the MoJ and is a rise of more than 50% on the figure of 74 recorded just two years ago.
