Prison officer’s steamy jail storeroom romp with robber busted by CCTV

A female prison officer was busted for having sex with a convicted violent armed robber inside jail after CCTV showed they were inside a storeroom together for an hour.

Rachel Stanton, of Station Road, Irthlingborough, went on to have a child with the convict and walked free from court on Tuesday, even though the judge said her actions undermined public trust.

She was working as a trainee G4S security first line manager at HMP Five Wells in 2022 when the illicit romance began, leading her to become pregnant.

Colleagues became suspicious of her relationship with Edwin Poole, 33, who was jailed in 2018 for 10 and a half years.

Poole was part of a gang of robbers who carried out violent armed raids at convenience stores in the West Midlands and Staffordshire over four days in January 2018.

Wolverhampton Crown Court was told he used a crowbar wrapped in a bin liner to bludgeon shop staff in one of the attacks.

Three erotic photographs and a sexually explicit letter found in the cell of Edwin Poole also led to her being charged with wilful misconduct in public office.

A search of Poole's cell discovered the three intimate photographs and sexually explicit letter written by Stanton to the convict.

This led to a trawl through the prison CCTV recordings, which revealed an hour-long period the pair spent locked in a storeroom together.

The mother of five children, 31, had pleaded guilty to wilful misconduct in public office at an earlier hearing.

She was sentenced on Tuesday at Northampton Crown Court by Judge David Herbert KC.

The court was told the relationship went on for some time and she was suspended from work, with Poole moved to another facility, once it came to light in June 2022.

She continued to visit him at the new prison and they now have a child together but are separated.

Lee Egan, mitigating, said Stanton had not abused her position to smuggle in contraband items or allowed herself to be "exploited".

However, she was an inexperienced officer who was chosen for a training course that would have seen her in charge of a whole landing of men at the super-prison and had developed feelings for Poole.

Judge Herbert said: “She should have known what the boundaries were. It shouldn’t take training to know she shouldn’t be doing that.”

Stanton cried in the dock as she was sentenced when he told her that her behaviour undermined trust in people in public office.

Judge Herbert said: “You should have known better. Your offending is so serious it demands a custodial sentence. I have to sentence you for a single offence. In short, you had a relationship with a prisoner.

“There was clear undisputable evidence between you that was discovered. They found a sexually explicit letter and some intimate images of yourself. CCTV footage shows the two of you together and you were in a room privately, together. Some intimacy must have taken place.”

Judge Herbert gave Stanton credit for her guilty plea saying he was satisfied the relationship with Poole was "entirely consensual".

She was sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for 18 months, with a further requirement to take part in 20 days of rehabilitation activity.

Stanton is one of several female officers to sleep with inmates in male prisons - with a mobile phone video of one having sex with a prisoner in his cell at HMP Wandsworth going viral after it was leaked online last month.

A woman has been charged with misconduct in public office.