Madeleine McCann has been missing since 2007 (Picture: AFP/Getty)

A prison officer at Wandsworth Prison has been sacked and four others disciplined after photos of them wearing T-shirts saying ‘We Have Madeleine McCann’ during a drunken night out were posted on Facebook.

They were among at least seven staff on a ‘boys’ weekend’ when the images were taken.

The pictures were on Facebook for two months before being brought to the attention of their bosses at Wandsworth Prison, London.

But a colleague told Metro it was ‘despicable’ that some involved in the incident were still working at the jail. He said: ‘It makes me sick to think just because they work for the prison service that they should get away with this disrespectful behaviour.


A Wandsworth Prison officer was sacked and three others were fired for wearing ‘We Have Madeleine McCann’ T-shirts (Picture: PA)

‘If I was the mother or father of Madeleine McCann I would want to know about this.’



The incident happened when the officers were ‘very drunk’ on a weekend away, he claimed.

The officer said printing slogans on Prison Service T-shirts about Madeleine, who went missing in Portugal in 2007, was a ‘disgusting act’. One senior officer has been dismissed, another remains suspended and three others received final written warnings.

Their code of conduct makes it a disciplinary offence to bring the prison service into disrepute through social media.

One officer was dismissed from their job at Wandsworth Prison over the T-shirts (Picture: PA)

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘Appropriate disciplinary action has been taken following an incident concerning a number of prison officers outside of working hours and away from the prison.’

The Prison Service also declared: ‘An investigation has taken place at HMP Wandsworth and appropriate disciplinary action has been taken following an incident concerning a number of prison officers outside of working hours and away from the prison.

‘Until the disciplinary process is completed we are unable to comment further.’