A former prison guard has been jailed for having a relationship with an inmate serving time for drug offences. Jahvine Kwamba, now 21, was 19 when she was employed by Serco as a prison officer in Doncaster before being transferred to HMP Fosse Way in Leicester four months later.
Relationship began in February 2024
Kwamba and inmate Roberts Sokolovs began a romantic relationship in February 2024, which continued after he was transferred to a deportation centre near Gatwick Airport about three months later. Sexually explicit images were shared between them, and messages from Kwamba to the prisoner included "I love you", but the court heard there was no sexual contact between the pair in prison.
Sam Pooniah, representing Kwamba, said Sokolovs was her client's first romantic relationship. Sokolovs also arranged for his 17-year-old sister and his mother to send cash to Kwamba, who was heavily in debt.
Arrests and charges
After Sokolovs, a drug dealer convicted in 2021 in Lincoln, was deported back to Latvia following his jail term, police arrested Kwamba and seized her phone. Messages, images and details of the cash transfers were found.
Sokolovs' sister, Venera Sokolova, now 20, and his mother, Zita Sokolova, 53, both of Alderley, Digmoor, Skelmersdale, Lancashire, were also arrested and charged with communicating with Sokolov in prison.
