- Female Guard Behind Bars for 4000 Flirty Messages to Inmate, the misconduct highlights serious issues within correctional facilities.
- Emotional connections can blur professional boundaries.
- Consequences include jail time and damaged reputations.
Toni Cole, a 29-year-old female prison officer, has been sentenced to one year in jail for exchanging more than 4,000 intimate messages with an inmate at HMP Five Wells, a new ‘super-prison’ located in Northamptonshire. Cole was found guilty of sharing 4,369 messages of this nature with the inmate.
During her appearance at Northampton Crown Court, it was revealed that Cole had engaged in 18 video calls with the inmate and participated in interactions that were described as ‘sexualized or flirtatious.’ Further details indicated that Cole would sit on the inmate’s lap, kiss him, and even alert him about upcoming cell searches.
These offenses occurred between December 9, 2022, and January 25, 2023, before prison authorities uncovered Cole’s misconduct. She pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office and was also ordered to pay a £187 surcharge in addition to her one-year prison sentence.
Cole’s case is not unique, as she is the second officer in recent years to be convicted of misconduct in public office at the same Wellingborough jail.
Last summer, Rachel Stanton, 31, received a suspended sentence for her involvement in a romantic relationship with an inmate, armed robber Edwin Poole. Staff found intimate images and a love letter in Poole’s cell, and CCTV footage captured the pair entering a prison storeroom for over an hour.
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