Salford prison officer kissed inmate before smuggling cannabis into jail for him sentenced

A prison officer who started an inappropriate relationship with an inmate and smuggled cannabis for him has been jailed.

Joanne Hunter was working at Forest Bank Prison in Salford, when she brought in the drug, hiding it in a juice carton and a Red Bull can.She handed over the packages to a ‘big player’ inmate in the prison before they were passed on to Connor Willis, who she "thought was in love with her".

Hunter, 28, from Bury, had begun a relationship with Willis, kissing him and sending him explicit pictures of herself, but denied that it ever became sexual.She also admitted sharing ‘flirty banter’ with another inmate.

When prison authorities became aware of Hunter’s crimes and confronted her she confessed to what she had done.

A judge described it as a "tragic" case before locking her up for three years, hitting out at her "selfish and misguided" behaviour.She wept and blew a kiss to her family before she was sent down to start her sentence.

Manchester Crown Court heard Hunter began working at the jail in December 2018.

Two years later, prison bosses ‘received information’ that she had been smuggling illicit items into the jail, and she was brought in for a disciplinary interview.

Hunter admitted she had smuggled items into the prison on behalf of an inmate named Connor Willis.

She told prison bosses: “Someone from the out gave it to me to bring in for Cox and Connor Willis.”It is understood ‘Cox’ is Craig Cox, a member of a notorious Salford crime family who was recently sentenced to 13-and-a-half years in prison for his part in the robbery of £1m-worth of cocaine from a Liverpool gang.

Hunter said "some random girl" had met her twice at Tesco in Bury and handed over packages which she then brought into jail, one being a Red Bull can, and the other a juice carton.Hunter said she did not know what was inside the packages but guessed it was "tobacco, burn and weed or a phone". He had come onto the wing where she worked, and at first she did not like him because he was ‘arrogant’, but "as time went on he grew on her", prosecutor Rachel Widdicombe said.

Hunter said they had kissed ‘several times’ and that she had sent him ‘explicit photos’.Willis had given her his number and she would call him and send him messages.

The court was told that he allegedly ‘arranged’ Hunter’s meeting with the woman at Tesco to handover the package.Hunter said she had brought the packages into the jail at the weekend, "when she knew that no-one would search her due to staff restrictions as a result of Covid".

She put the package in her pocket, left it in her office then handed it to Cox who in turn passed it to Willis, the court heard.Prior to one of the handovers, Willis had told her he "needed something to help him get through Christmas".

Hunter also said that she had exchanged ‘flirty banter’ and photographs with another inmate, and exchanged messages with other inmates following their release.Asked if she had been threatened to smuggle in packages, she told prison bosses: “No, I feel stupid.”

She said she was offered up to £300 by Willis but she refused the cash.

At one stage she claimed she felt her ‘life could be in danger’.Asked why, she said that she knew "Cox and others were big players and members of an organised crime group", Ms Widdicombe said.

She said that Willis and Cox were interviewed but that "no proceedings were brought against them".Prosecutors were unable to identify the woman who Hunter had received the packages from, the court heard.

Hunter, of Holbeach Close, Bury, pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office and conspiring to convey list A articles into a prison.Marie Durning, head of security at Forest Bank, provided a statement to the court to detail the impact of Hunter’s crimes.

Summarising the statement, Ms Widdicombe said: “She says that it undermines the security of the prison, it allows inmates to continue their criminal activity and leads to problems with discipline in prison.”Defending, Richard Orme described Hunter as being ‘naive’ and ‘vulnerable’.

“She was ripe for the picking for unscrupulous criminals to take advantage of someone in their first job out of education,” he said.“She has unfortunately fallen foul of the system by her own stupidity."

Hunter is a ‘highly educated’ woman with an undergraduate degree and masters degree, and had focused on her career but was inexperienced in relationships, Mr Orme said.“She believed that this unscrupulous individual [Willis] loved her, she genuinely believed that.

"She believed that to prove that it was reciprocated she would agree to doing what he asked.“She is someone who has been manipulated into doing this.

"She was used by this particular individual, who she thought was in love with her, clearly he was not.“She is the one that suffers.

"She will not be able to work in public services, which is where she wanted to work.”Mr Orme said Hunter had since found employment in hospitality and bar jobs.

“She is deeply embarrassed, her family are deeply embarrassed.“She is from a respectable, hard working, decent and honest family.

"She has learnt a salutary lesson.”The judge, Recorder Paul Hodgkinson, said she was jailing Hunter to deter others from doing the same.He told her: "You had the potential to be a very real asset to the prison service, not least considering your obvious intellect and intelligence.

"However, you chose a different path."You decided to abuse your position of trust.

"Your actions in relation to this criminality strike at the very heart of the criminal justice system."You put the public at risk, you put your fellow prison officers at risk, and of course you put other vulnerable prison officers at risk by your actions."

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To know...