A former prison officer has admitted misconduct in public office after exchanging thousands of illicit messages with an inmate at a maximum security jail. Jade Morris pleaded guilty at a hearing in March to misconduct in public office and encouraging the inmate, Jerome Nunes, to use a prohibited device.
The court heard Morris shared an intimate relationship with Nunes, with the pair having shared more than 5,000 illicit messages which came to light when the convicted drug dealer threw a mobile phone out of his cell window at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire four years ago.
The 37-year-old former prison guard described the accusation against her as “ludicrous” at the start of a police inquiry but pleaded guilty earlier this year. Nunes pleaded guilty at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court in February this year to two offences under the Prison Act 1952 for possessing and using an unauthorised mobile phone.
Court hears details of secret relationship
Opening the facts of the case at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday, prosecutor Cathlyn Orchard said 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 nearby recovery of one of several phones used to communicate with Morris, mainly in the early hours. Ms Orchard said Morris, from Holmer, Hereford, was arrested at her home address in January 2023.
The prosecutor 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 recovered from phones
The phone was seized and extensive police inquiries were conducted, establishing that a number stored in Morris’s phone as “Ghost” was in fact Nunes, and that around 100 WhatsApp messages and 23 files had been shared between them. Further inquiries recovered evidence of Snapchat calls and messages and Morris was interviewed again in May 2024, when she admitted communicating with a prisoner who she refused to name, claiming to have been feeling intimidated and frightened.
Ms Orchard said of deleted material and messages recovered during the inquiry, including a letter found on Nunes’s phone: “It seems implicit that they must have been sharing sexual images.”
Holly Sims, arguing that 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 arguments and sentencing
Defence lawyer Matthew Bolt argued Nunes, who was freed almost two years ago, could be spared an immediate prison sentence. Describing Nunes as a “man in a hurry” who is now running a small nascent food business, Mr Bolt said: “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.
