Jennifer Gavan, Ayshea Gunn and Emily Watson were all locked up within the last three years for sparking relationships with prisoners at £250 million super prison HMP Berwyn in Wrexham, North Wales, which houses Category C adult male offenders.
Staff at the prison, which opened in 2017, have now had to undergo compulsory new training in a bid to tackle such issues at the 2,100-capacity jail.
The most recent to be jailed was Gavan, 27, who was sent down for eight months last year. She had sent intimate photos of herself to prisoner Alex Coxon, 25, on Snapchat and kissed him during the relationship between April and July 2020. She also smuggled a mobile phone behind bars for Coxon.
Jennifer Gavan (left – with her partner, who has vowed to stand by her) and Ayshea Gunn
Former prison guard Emily Watson is pictured here in December
Rachel Martin, 25, became intimate with convicted robber Raymond Abraham while he served a sentence at HMP Guys Marsh, where she worked.
Martin exchanged ‘thousands’ of voice, video and text messages with the inmate, knowing that prisoners were not allowed mobile phones.
She even sent him one message advising him to flush a mobile phone down the toilet if his cell was searched, a court heard.
Martin, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, also gave the convict a parcel containing ‘high-value designer clothes and footwear’ as well as female underwear during their five-month relationship.
Rachel Martin, 25, became intimate with convicted robber Raymond Abraham while he served a sentence at HMP Guys Marsh, where she worked
Emma Webster, 34, was jailed for 14 months for sending two inmates pictures of herself in her underwear and letters signed ‘Your future wife’.
The mother of two also had phone sex with jailed drug dealer Bradley Brammall during 17 banned calls with the A-Wing prisoner using a smuggled in phone.
Eight days after being dumped by Brammall, Webster swapped night shifts with colleagues to start flirting with C-Wing inmate Jimmy Bennett, who is behind bars for a knife attack on an 18-year-old man.
During a series of 75 prohibited phone calls to Bennett, the operational grade prison officer at Lincoln Jail was asked to pull down her pants while at home in her bedroom and appeared to be pleasuring herself while breathing heavily.
Webster, of Ermine East, Lincoln, admitted misconduct in public office from August 18, 2021 to November 14, 2021.
Emma Webster, 34, was jailed for 14 months for sending two inmates pictures of herself in her underwear and letters signed ‘Your future wife’
Heather McKenzie was working at HMP Shotts – home to some of the country’s most hardened criminals – when she teamed up with convicted murderer Zak Malavin to supply drugs to inmates.
Prison officials and police started an investigation after noticing a significant rise in the quantities of drugs being found in the jail – and receiving a tip-off about possible staff corruption.
Intelligence suggested McKenzie, 31, was illegally bringing drugs and mobile phones into the prison.
Heather McKenzie (left) teamed up with convicted murderer Zak Malavin
Malavin, serving life for murdering a man in a park by attacking him with a sword, was found to have an iPhone, 1.45g of cocaine and a sleeping pill in his cell when officers searched it in May 2020.
A search the following month uncovered two knotted bags containing a further 5.7g of cocaine, while data on the iPhone revealed texts and calls to McKenzie.
Police later raided McKenzie’s home in Forth, Lanarkshire, and arrested her after finding £2,500 in cash, mobile phones, syringes and trenbolone – a powerful steroid – as well as traces of cocaine and 28g of another drug, benzocaine.
An iPhone found by police had a missed WhatsApp call from a contact named ‘Zak’. Further analysis discovered a string of WhatsApp messages between Malavin and McKenzie. Evidence suggested criminal associates had come to McKenzie’s home to hand her drugs, phones and money, which she would then smuggle into prison and stash near Malavin’s cell.
McKenzie, a mother of two, appeared at the High Court in Lanark and admitted supplying Malavin and others with drugs at HMP Shotts between March and October 2020. She also admitted giving Malavin an illicit mobile phone and sim card. She will be sentenced next month.