Prison officer who had affair with Jersey drug smuggler jailed for two years

A prison officer who had a behind-bars sexual relationship with Jersey drug smuggler Curtis Warren, has been jailed for two years.

Durham Crown Court heard how Stephanie Smithwhite, 40, engaged in a sexual relationship with Warren while working as an officer at the maximum security HMP Frankland near Durham where Warren was serving time.

Warren was arrested in Jersey in 2009 for trying to smuggle £1 million worth of drugs into the island.

The 57-year-old from Liverpool became an international drug trafficker in the 1990s and was one of Britain's most wanted men. He was once named in the Sunday Times Rich List.

From 1997 until 2007, he was locked in The Netherlands' highest security jail after conspiring to import £100m worth of drugs and weapons.

Smithwhite eventually told investigators how Warren had become obsessed with her, and would buzz from his cell to call for her attention.

Last month she admitted two counts of misconduct in a public office, the first relating to their sexual relationship which lasted between June and December 2018. The second count was for failing to report that she knew he had access to a phone.

Judge Jonathan Carroll said 56-year-old Warren was a "major league offender" who tried to manipulate her into bringing contraband into the prison after starting their affair. The Court heard how he had also asked her about prison intelligence and security cameras.

The judge said she was infatuated with him, as demonstrated by her tattoo of the name Curtis next to a rose.

The judge said: "Your conduct represents the very most grave breach of trust placed in you."

Warren was known to have previously continued to run his criminal enterprises from behind bars using mobile phones, but Smithwhite did not report him for using a phone to contact her.

He was also known to have previously started relationships with other prison staff, but Smithwhite failed to resist him, despite undergoing trainingabout manipulative and corrupting inmates.

Investigators found they had called each other 213 times in just three months.

Rupert Doswell, prosecuting, said Warren was serving 13 years for conspiracy to import drugs and a further 10-year sentence for failing to pay back £198 million in proceeds of crime. He had previously committed manslaughter following a jail fight with an inmate in Holland. Mr Doswell said Warren was "highly dangerous to the public".

Staff became suspicious of Smithwhite's relationship with him and mounted a surveillance operation.

At first she denied having a physical relationship with the Liverpudlian.After searching her home, Police found notes that they had passed to each other and a copy of his autobiography called Cocky, The Rise And Fall Of Curtis Warren, Mr Doswell said.

They searched the business of one of her relatives and discovered 450 letters. They found a white Samsung phone in her car which was only used to ring one number - traced to Frankland Prison, and used by Warren.

In interviews with detectives, she was said to be "devastated" but hopedthere was an outside chance their relationship could continue.

Andrew Nixon, representing Smithwhite, who is from Boldon Colliery, South Tyneside, said she made a "catastrophic error of judgment", saying she had "fallen in love with the wrong person."

Detective Inspector Lindsay Banks-Brown said Smithwhite's actions risked tarnishing the reputations of others.