A prison officer engaged in a secret romantic relationship with an inmate and sent sexually explicit selfies, a court heard. Jade Morris, 37, and Jerome Nunes, 35, exchanged more than 5,000 messages during their "intimate relationship" between July 2022 and January 2023.
Morris was employed at HMP Long Lartin, a category A prison in Worcestershire, where drug lynchpin Nunes had been serving a 12-year sentence. The court heard prison bosses grew suspicious after Nunes attempted to cover up the fling by throwing a phone out of his cell window. Officers found thousands of messages and raunchy photos exchanged by the pair via social media.
Relationship uncovered after phone thrown from cell window
At her sentencing hearing at Birmingham Crown Court today, Cathlyn Orchard, prosecuting, said: "Jerome Nunes was a serving prisoner at Long Lartin - he was sentenced in 2019 to 12 years imprisonment for conspiracy to supply cocaine.
"In 2022 West Midlands Police investigated the conduct of a prison officer, Jade Morris. It transpired that she was engaged in an intimate relationship with Nunes using multiple mobile numbers."
"On October 25, 2022 Nunes' cell was searched and he threw a sock containing a mobile phone out of his cell window. That device was recovered along with a phone charger and a phone reader."
Thousands of messages and explicit images exchanged
Ms Orchard said the investigation revealed that the pair had been communicating over WhatsApp and Snapchat, with more than 5,000 messages recovered from Snapchat. Much of the contact had been late at night or in the early hours of the morning. Police also recovered a letter written by Nunes to Morris "which confirmed they had an intimate relationship".
She said it had been "implicit" they had been sharing explicit images. When officers went to Morris's home, she refused to give them the PIN for her device and later denied she had been in phone contact with a prisoner at Long Lartin. In another interview, she claimed Nunes's number had been passed on to her and that she had been "intimidated and frightened" into contacting him.
Ms Orchard said: "There was a very substantial amount of communication between the two using multiple phones and numbers. Attempts were made to keep the contact secret by using fake names and deleting messages."
Defendants await sentencing
Nunes was jailed for 12 years in 2019 for his involvement in an eight-man gang responsible for bringing in and distributing £2m of cocaine throughout Newport, South Wales, and surrounding areas. He pleaded guilty at Birmingham Magistrates' Court to two offences under the Prison Act 1952 for possessing and using an unauthorised mobile phone.
Holly Sims, defending Morris, a mother of two young children aged eight and nine, said at the time she had been caring for her father who had died and was going through a divorce. She said there was no evidence of any physical contact between her and Nunes, and that Morris had been struggling with her job and was "ashamed and embarrassed" about her behaviour.
Matthew Bolt, defending Nunes, said he had already been punished in prison and that since being released almost two years ago, he had settled in well and started a small food business. Judge Peter Carr adjourned sentence until Friday morning and remanded both defendants in custody.
Georgina Davies, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said previously: "Prison officers hold positions of significant trust and responsibility. The public are entitled to expect that those working within the prison system will act with integrity and always maintain clear professional boundaries. This case involved a sustained and deliberate breach of that trust. Jade Morris knew that prisoners should not have access to mobile phones yet chose to engage in a prolonged relationship with Nunes, directly facilitating his criminal offending and undermining the security of the prison in which she worked."
