This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

A prison officer who had a sexual relationship with the notorious gangster Curtis Warren and got a tattoo of his name has been jailed for two years.

Stephanie Smithwhite, 40, worked at the maximum security HMP Frankland near Durham where Warren – known as “Cocky” and once named in the Sunday Times Rich List – was imprisoned.

Smithwhite denied that a hole cut in the trousers of her prison uniform was to facilitate sex acts, but the sentencing judge said it was hard to imagine why else it was there.

Smithwhite and Warren kissed and had oral sex in his cell, in the kitchen and laundry room at the jail, which houses some of the country’s most dangerous criminals.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Curtis Warren. Photograph: States of Jersey police/PA

She also sent him a photo of herself wearing a catsuit, Durham crown court heard.

Last month Smithwhite, from Boldon Colliery, South Tyneside, admitted two counts of misconduct in a public office. One charge related to their sexual relationship, said to have lasted between June and December 2018, and the second related to her failure to report that she knew Warren had access to a phone.

The judge, Jonathan Carroll, said 56-year-old Warren, from Liverpool, was a “major league offender” who tried to manipulate Smithwhite into bringing contraband into the prison and asked about prison intelligence and security cameras.

The judge said Smithwhite was infatuated with Warren, as demonstrated by her tattoo of the name Curtis next to a rose. “Your conduct represents the very most grave breach of trust placed in you,” Carroll said.

Warren was believed to have continued to run his criminal enterprises from behind bars using mobile phones, but Smithwhite did not report that he had used a phone to contact her.

Investigators found they had called each other 213 times in just three months, despite Smithwhite having undergone training about manipulative and corrupting inmates. Warren was also known to have had relationships with other prison staff.

Rupert Doswell, prosecuting, said Warren was serving 13 years for conspiracy to import drugs and a further 10 for failing to pay back £198m of his criminal profits. He was previously convicted of manslaughter after a fight with another inmate in a Dutch jail. Doswell said Warren was “highly dangerous to the public”.

When HMP Frankland staff became suspicious of Smithwhite’s relationship with Warren, a surveillance operation was mounted that found evidence of her passing a note to him and receiving one back.

Warren tried to eat her note when officers went to retrieve it from him, the court heard. The notes were found to be highly sexualised.

Smithwhite initially denied having a physical relationship with Warren. Police searched her home and found more notes and a copy of his autobiography, Cocky, Doswell said.

They searched the business of one of her relatives and discovered 450 letters, many of which contained sexual fantasies. They also found a white Samsung phone in her car that was only used to ring one number. The number was traced to HMP Frankland, and to Warren.

In interviews with detectives, Smithwhite was said to be “devastated” but hoped there was an outside chance their relationship could continue.

Andrew Nixon, for Smithwhite, said his client had made a “catastrophic error of judgment”. He said: “This is a woman who has fallen in love with the wrong person.”

DI Lindsay Banks-Brown of Durham CID said: “Those who choose to act dishonestly in a position of trust should not be allowed to tarnish the reputation of honest, hardworking staff who carry out their duties within the law.

“We hope this result shows we will take action against those people who believe they are above the law and engage in corrupt activity, and we will bring them to justice.”