The forbidden relationships all occurred within the last six years and were discovered through a Freedom of Information requests. These figures are unprecedented, and they come after three of the women were apprehended and prosecuted for their illicit liaisons.
From October 2017 to January 2018, one of these guards, Emily Watson, had a sexual relationship with a Liverpool man named John McGee. Watson fell in love with McGee and visited him in his cell several times.
The prison discovered that they had kept in touch through an Instagram account. Watson was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to misconduct in public office by engaging in an intimate sexual relationship with a prisoner.
Jennifer Gavan and Ayshea Gunn were also imprisoned for having affairs with inmates. Gavan accepted payment to smuggle a phone into robber Alex Coxon’s cell, and the pair were later caught on WhatsApp exchanging raunchy pictures.
Gunn met armed robber Khuram Razaq and exchanged sexually explicit photos and videos. Gavan was imprisoned for eight months, and Gunn was imprisoned for a year.
Mark Fairhurst, chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, attributes this concerning trend to the recruitment of the “wrong kind of women.” He stated that the staff being hired do not have face-to-face interviews and are hired using virtual platforms such as Zoom. He went on to say that many people who get these jobs lack life experience and are vulnerable to conditioning from prisoners.
According to Ministry of Justice statistics, 31 female officers in England and Wales have been fired for inappropriate relationships since 2019. The fact that one officer fathered an inmate’s child demonstrates the gravity and seriousness of these forbidden relationships.
HMP Berwyn, where all of these relationships took place, has previously been dubbed the UK’s “comfortable” jail, with hotel-style accommodations. Cells have no window bars, ensuite bathrooms, and inmates have TVs, laptops, and phones.
The prison administration has stated that the majority of the staff is hardworking and honest, but that they are doing more to catch the small number of inmates who break the rules.
