A female prison guard who had a “romantic and personal” relationship with a dangerous prisoner was sentenced to prison.
As Raymond Abraham, a convicted robber and kidnapper, was serving a 10-year term at HMP Guys Marsh, Rachel Martin, 25, had an extramarital relationship with him.
Thousands of sexual audio, video, and text messages were sent between Martin, who was 23 at the time, and Abraham despite the fact that prisoners were not permitted to use mobile phones.
She also sent him explicit photos of herself in a state of undress and gifted him her sexy underwear which he hid in his cell.
Martin received more than £12,000 from 40-year-old Abraham during their four-month affair which she spent on bills, designer clothes and electrical goods.
The relationship came to light when Martin was subjected to a random search on February 3, 2021, and a remote control vibrator was found in her jacket pocket.
Abraham’s cell was searched and prison officers found a mobile phone, two USB sticks and an SD card, which contained photos of Martin in her underwear.
They also found women’s underwear under Abraham’s pillow.
Despite being sacked, Martin continued her relationship with Abraham, even contacting two other prisoners on illegal mobile phones to try and contact her lover.
Martin admitted nine offences of misconduct and was jailed for 16 months.
Mittell, prosecuting, said: ‘Martin wilfully neglected to report that Mr Abraham had a phone and engaged in a series of communications with him knowing it was a criminal offence for a prisoner to have such a device.
‘The phone work conducted revealed the volume of messages – between November and February there were about 1,900 WhatsApp messages declaring their love for one another in December, messages of an explicit nature and messages indicating the desire to perform certain sexual acts on one another.
Claire Mawer, defending, said her client was groomed by Abraham, who allegedly took advantage of her vulnerability.
She became involved with a work colleague and experienced bullying and harassment, all of which left her feeling vulnerable and she was signed off work sick for a week at one point due to stress.
Abraham approached her with a piece of paper with his telephone number and contact began, leading onto the relationship as he made her feel wanted.
Ms Mawer said: ‘She was a young girl, naive, suggestible, who lacked maturity and was also very vulnerable.
‘It would have been clear to everyone on the wing where she worked she was in a vulnerable position.
‘This was a much older man with a significant criminal history. He approached Miss Martin, he initiated contact and was persistent in encouraging contact.
‘It is clear, the providing of Miss Martin with cash to buy clothing and other items, it is the classic hallmark of grooming. Targeting a younger woman, identifying vulnerability and exploiting that.’
Judge Stephen Climie told Martin: ‘His grooming of you was effective and resulted in not only a degree of intimacy between the two of you, but also involved you agreeing to convey items.’