Mugshots for former prison guards Emily Watson, Ayshea Gunn and Jennifer Gavan .
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At least 18 female guards in the U.K.'s "cushiest prison" have reportedly been fired or resigned amid a flurry of sordid sexual accusations — including claims of sex inside cells and one guard smuggling her underwear to an inmate.
HMP Berwyn, which is also Britain's largest facility, has been hit with various claims of illicit affairs and inappropriate relationships between guards and inmates since it opened in 2017, with three former workers sentenced in a 2019 scandal, the Mirror reported.
The publication obtained documents about the exits obtained through information requests showed the inappropriate relationships were more widespread than had been publicly known.
British outlets are reporting that the 18 women who were fired or resigned from a single jail is a "record," noting that since 2019, a total of 31 women across England and Wales have been fired from jails for intimate relationships with inmates.
Former HMP Berwyn guard Jennifer Gavan, for example, was sentenced to eight months in jail last year after pleading guilty to misconduct. She accepted £150 — or about $180 — from inmate Alex Coxon to smuggle him a cellphone, which they later used to exchange raunchy photos, according to the Mirror. Coxon was in prison for robbery.
Mark Fairhurst, chair of the Prison Officers’ Association, pinned blame on the recent spate of affairs and firings on "the wrong kind of women" getting hired.
"Staff being recruited don’t have face-to-face interviews… it’s all done on Zoom," Fairhurst told the Mirror. "A lot of people getting these jobs don’t have enough life experience and are susceptible to conditioning from prisoners." READ MORE...
