A former prison officer is due to be sentenced this week after admitting she shared thousands of Snapchat messages with an inmate at a maximum security jail.
Jade Morris, from Holmer, Hereford, had an intimate relationship with the prisoner, and the pair were caught when his mobile phone was discovered.
Guilty plea and background
Morris initially called the allegations “ludicrous” at the start of a police inquiry, but pleaded guilty in March to misconduct in public office and encouraging inmate Jerome Nunes to use a prohibited device.
The sentencing hearing heard they exchanged more than 5,000 illicit messages, which came to light when convicted drug dealer Nunes threw a mobile phone out of his cell window at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire four years ago.
Nunes pleaded guilty at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court in February to two offences under the Prison Act 1952 for possessing and using an unauthorised mobile phone.
Court details
Prosecutor Cathlyn Orchard told Birmingham Crown Court that Nunes, 35, has 23 previous convictions for 31 offences and was at Long Lartin serving a sentence for a drugs conspiracy offence imposed at Cardiff Crown Court in 2019.
The court heard Nunes, from Newport in south Wales, was subject to a cell search in October 2022, leading to the recovery of one of several phones used to communicate with Morris, mainly in the early hours.
Morris was arrested at her home address in January 2023. Ms Orchard told Judge Peter Carr: “She (Morris) said it (her mobile phone) was personal and private and refused to hand it over. She denied having a relationship with Nunes. She said the allegations were ludicrous.”
Evidence and defence
The phone was seized and inquiries established that a number stored as “Ghost” was in fact Nunes, with around 100 WhatsApp messages and 23 files shared between them. Further inquiries recovered Snapchat calls and messages, and Morris was interviewed again in May 2024, when she admitted communicating with a prisoner she refused to name, claiming she felt intimidated and frightened.
Ms Orchard said of deleted material and messages recovered, including a letter found on Nunes’s phone: “It seems implicit that they must have been sharing sexual images.”
Holly Sims, arguing Morris could be dealt with by a suspended sentence, said: “There is no evidence of any physical contact or of explicit photos being shared between either of the two defendants. It is of course conceded that these offences are serious. She is extremely ashamed and embarrassed of her behaviour.”
Defence lawyer Matthew Bolt argued Nunes, who was freed almost two years ago, could be spared an immediate prison sentence, describing him as a “man in a hurry” who now runs a small food business. “He is successful enough already to be employing others in that business. He is a man in a hurry to make up for the lost time from his family and he is anxious to be a law-abiding success. Sentence can be suspended in confidence he would not trouble the courts again.”
Both defendants, who had been on bail, were remanded in custody overnight and will be sentenced on Friday.
