From officers to inmates - five disgraced guards jailed over secret prison relationships & computer misuse

When these women took posts at Doncaster prisons, their roles in a public office meant they were entrusted with access to confidential files and a high level of responsibility.

But after forming romantic relationships with inmates and accessing the confidential records of serving and notorious prisoners, not only did they commit misconduct in a public office, but they also wound up serving time behind bars themselves.

Three of them were in their early 20s when the fell in love with inmates - breaking the law at the same time.

A fourth woman who formed a romantic relationship with an inmate was in her 50s, and was sentenced on Friday (July 10, 2026).

One even sent illicit messages claiming “I love my job but I love you more,” and “I’m literally praying to have your babies.”

During Sheffield Crown Court sentencing hearings, immaturity was said to be a factor in the case of one of the women, while another claimed she had been "manipulated by an experienced criminal."

A third said something similar when she launched a petition, calling for the minimum age of prison guards to be increased.

The fourth officer, jailed this week, threw her 20 year career as a prison guard away to have a relationship with an inmate 20 years her junior.

Despite the mitigating factors in their cases, Sheffield judges ruled their offending was so serious that custody could not be avoided, and sent each of them to serve immediate prison sentences during hearings held since March 2025.

A fifth prison worker was jailed for charges of misconduct in public office and causing a computer to perform a function to secure/enable unauthorised access to a program after she abused her access to inmates’ confidential prison records to look up notorious criminals and pass on information which ended up in a serving prisoner’s cell.

Claire Hall: Jailed for nine months in July 2026

A prison officer with 20 years experience threw it all away to enter into a six-month sexual relationship with an inmate, for whom she commandeered a prison officers’ toilet to use for their secret trysts.

52-year-old Claire Hall appeared emotionless as she was jailed over her secret romance with prisoner Shane Thomas at HMP Lindholme.

“You as a woman in a middle age became attracted to a prisoner 20 years your junior, having been divorced for some 13 years,” The Recorder of Sheffield Judge Jeremy Richardson KC told Hall, who appeared in the dock wearing a white shirt and yellow trousers.

He continued: “The whole episode is serious, the whole episode is sordid.”

In addition to Thomas’ cell, the romping couple used a toilet designated for prison officers for their forbidden liaisons.

Later, when Hall gave investigating officers access to her mobile phone, photographs showing Thomas posing in women’s underwear in his cell were discovered.

“For a prison officer to breach the trust reposed in her by doing what you did in the way you did is outrageous. It compromises the good order of the prison,”

Jailing Hall for nine months, Judge Richardson told her: “What a catastrophe, what a catastrophe for you and your young daughter.”

He continued: “This case is a paradigm example of how a prison officer should never behave…punishment and deterrence, both of which are the purpose of sentence, must be accentuated in this case.”

Courtney Harrison: Jailed for 21 months in July 2026

A prison worker sobbed as she was jailed for looking up the records of notorious inmates including Lucy Letby, Rose West and Damien Bendall, and for passing on information to a friend about a serving prisoner

Courtney Harrison appeared distressed and in shock as she was sent to begin a 21-month prison sentence for her conduct, which was described as “grave” by The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC.

He told Harrison: “Prison officers, and officers within the prison, have reposed within them a very considerable responsibility and trust.

“When an individual breaches that trust, punishment must follow, and an example has to be made of them.”

Harrison, of Nelson Road, Edlington, Doncaster, had access to confidential information in her prison service role, involving a variety of administrative duties, at HMP Moorland in Doncaster when she committed the offences.

Judge Richardson said he regarded the most serious aspect of Harrison’s conduct to be her decision to look up, and pass on confidential information from the prison records of serving inmate George Tunney, a friend of a friend, when asked to do so.

The information passed on by Harrison, who is aged 27 now but was 23 at the time of the offences, subsequently “ended up in Tunney’s cell,” Judge Richardson said, during a hearing held on July 7, 2026.

The other aspect of Harrison’s offending, said Judge Richardson, related to her “nosiness” when it came to notorious prisoners such as hammer-wielding child murderer Damien Bendall and serial killers Rose West, Harold Shipman and Lucy Letby.

“You accessed in 2022 and 2023 a number of personal records of very high profile criminals who were serving long sentences…all of whom were notorious criminals,” Judge Richardson said, adding: “You accessed the records of at least four others who were in prisons in the north of England, one of whom was a Category A prisoner.”

Harrison’s conduct was eventually brought to light, and she was subsequently arrested and charged with offences of misconduct in public office and causing a computer to perform a function to secure/enable unauthorised access to a program, both of which she pleaded guilty to at an earlier hearing.

Charlotte Winstanley: Jailed for two years, six months in February 2026

Charlotte Winstanley, of Coronation Road, Doncaster, threw herself into a sexual relationship with gang member Jabhari Blair, 30, who is serving a 12-year sentence at HMP Lindholme for wounding, robbery and possessing firearms.

But the 27-year-old prison officer - who was 22 when she began her job - seemingly saw the best in Blair, supplying him a mobile phone so she could swap messages about their next illicit meet up inside.

She also smuggled him cannabis, disappeared into private offices with him while on duty, warned him about upcoming searches of his cell, and shared details about other inmates’ health conditions.

“This is an exceptionally serious case of corruption,” said The Recorder of Sheffield His Honour Judge Jeremy Richardson KC at the pair’s sentencing on February 2, 2026.

“Regrettably, I have dealt with several cases of women prison officers having intimate relationships in prison - by some considerable margin, this is by far the worst.”

Winstanley and Blair began their relationship shortly after she started at HMP Lindholme in South Yorkshire in October 2020.

She became his link to the outside, smuggling him a phone and even taking instructions of items he wanted from Argos and brought into prison.

The court heard Winstanley was “infatuated” with the gang member as they swapped hundreds of intimate, sexual messages. Texts to him included: “Life starts now, baby. Every sacrifice I make I do so I can be with you.”

Others included “I love my job but I love you more,” and one which read: “I’m literally praying to have your babies.”

Anti-corruption officers at HMP Lindholme grew wise to Winstansley and Blair’s relationship, and she was arrested in November 2022.

She later pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office and transmitting a photograph from inside a prison. Blair also pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis and prohibited items, namely a phone and a USB stick.

The court heard Winstanley is now “filled with remorse” about the affair and accepts full responsibility.

Judge Richardson noted she was young and immature when she began the relationship, and accepted a letter she wrote where she detailed her desire to “focus on the future.”

But, in sentencing, the judge said: “This case is a very serious example of its kind. It is a case of right or wrong - and, I’m afraid to say in your case, you chose the wrong path and knowingly did so. The corruption went from bad to worse.”

Blair, who is serving a 12-year sentence following a recall to prison, was told he had “personally corrupted a prison officer” in a way that was “about as bad as it gets.”

Winstanley was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, with Judge Richardson remarking: “I’m very conscious that prison for you as a former prison officer will fall very hard on you.”

Blair received a 13-month prison sentence consecutive to his 12-year sentence.

Morgan Farr Varney: Jailed for 10 months in May 2025

Morgan Farr Varney began a physical and romantic relationship with an inmate at HMP Lindholme while she was employed as a prison officer.

After joining as a prison officer in April 2022, Farr Varney entered a training program involving anti-corruption as well as input on conditioning from inmates and how to spot it.

However, CCTV evidence recovered as part of an investigation by the Prison Anti-Corruption Unit showed Farr Varney entering a cupboard with an inmate at HMP Lindholme, in Doncaster, during her course of employment and loitering with him on a wing.

A search of the inmate's cell led to the recovery of love letters, with officers finding letters of a similar nature during a search of Farr Varney's bedroom.

Farr Varney was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office in January 2023. She was interviewed by officers where she admitted that she had "proper fell in love with him" and expressed concerns that she had "f****d" her life up.

After being released on bail, Farr Varney resigned from her role at HMP Lindholme, with the inmate transferred to another prison.

However, their relationship continued, with officers recovering more photographs of Farr Varney from the inmate at HMP Wealstun.

Farr Varney, then aged 24, then of West Avenue, Stainforth, pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office at Sheffield Crown Court in April 2024.

She was remanded in custody ahead of a sentencing hearing at the same court on Friday, May 9, 2025, during which she was sentenced to 10 months in prison.

In October 2025, following her release from custody, Farr Varney launched a public petition, calling for the minimum age of prison guards to be increased.

On her petition page, HERE, she wrote: ”I am speaking out to share my story, not to excuse the mistakes I made when I was younger, but to shed light on how immaturity, inexperience, and emotional vulnerability can have devastating consequences when placed in an environment as complex and high-pressure as a prison.

“When I first joined the prison service, I was young, eager to prove myself, to help others, and to build a career.

"But I was also naive. I didn’t yet understand how power dynamics, emotional manipulation, and psychological pressure could affect a person, especially someone still finding their identity and confidence.

“Over time, I found myself caught in a situation that I was not emotionally equipped to handle.

"I was manipulated, subtly and gradually, until I could no longer see the boundaries I was crossing.

"The consequences of that manipulation were life-changing. I lost three years of my life, defended my abuser, endured imprisonment myself, and suffered immense personal and emotional trauma.

“If proper measures of support had been in place, things could have been very different.”

Katie Evans: Jailed for 21 months in March 2025

Mother-of-one Katie Evans, then aged 26, wept in the dock at Sheffield Crown Court in March 2025 as a judge described how she was "corrupted" not long after she started work at Doncaster Prison in South Yorkshire when she was 21.

As well as starting an intimate relationship with the prisoner, Daniel Brownley, Evans had more than 140 phone calls with him, moved money around bank accounts for him, and supplied him with information the prison held on him, The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, said.

The court was told that Evans admitted to having had an "intimate" relationship with Brownley but prosecutors said it was not clear whether she accepted this was sexual.

The judge heard she had boasted to an ex-prison officer that she had performed a sex act on the inmate and the defendant referred to herself as "your queen" when talking to Brownley.

Judge Richardson said the sentence of 21 months should have been longer but, "purely as an act of mercy", he reduced it to take into account the effect it will have on Evans' relationship with her young daughter and the difficulties she will have in prison as a former officer.

The judge also outlined the issues prisons are currently having with accommodating inmates serving short sentences.

But he said the offending was "so serious that only an immediate sentence of imprisonment is appropriate in this case".

Evans, of Hatfield, Doncaster, admitted misconduct in a public office at a previous hearing.

Judge Richardson told Evans "he corrupted you and not the reverse", adding: "I'm entirely satisfied you were manipulated by an experienced criminal to assist him."

But he said: "Your misconduct materially affected the good order and discipline of the prison."

The judge said Evans was "young and immature" at the time of the offending in 2020 and that she was "regrettably susceptible to manipulation".