A prison officer who exchanged sexually explicit selfies with an inmate during a secret six-month relationship has been sentenced to prison.
Jade Morris, 37, sent and received around 5,000 messages with convicted drug dealer Jerome Nunes, 35.
She was jailed for 12 months on Friday after a judge said her actions had compromised prison security and could have caused “untold harm” both inside and outside HMP Long Lartin.
Nunes, who had been released from an earlier sentence nearly two years before, was sentenced to nine months at Birmingham Crown Court.
The pair used several mobile phones to stay in contact after Morris began working at the maximum-security prison in Worcestershire in 2022.
Their relationship came to the attention of prison authorities after Nunes allegedly tried to conceal it by throwing a phone from his cell window.
Police later recovered thousands of social media messages, along with explicit photographs exchanged by the couple.
Morris, a mother of two from Holmer in Herefordshire, was going through a divorce from her husband, who was serving in the Armed Forces, during the relationship.
She initially dismissed the allegations as “ludicrous” when the investigation began, but pleaded guilty at a hearing in March to misconduct in public office and encouraging Nunes to use a prohibited device.
Nunes, from Newport in south Wales, pleaded guilty at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court in February this year to two offences under the Prison Act 1952 involving the possession and use of an unauthorised mobile phone.
The court was told that Nunes had 23 previous convictions for 31 offences.
He had been held at Long Lartin while serving a 12-year sentence imposed in 2019 for his role in an eight-man gang that brought £2 million worth of cocaine into Newport and distributed it across South Wales.
Nunes pleaded guilty at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court to two offences under the Prison Act 1952 relating to the possession and use of an unauthorised mobile phone.
Passing sentence, Judge Peter Carr told both defendants: “Appropriate punishment can only be achieved by immediate custody.”
Jade Morris, pictured at an earlier court appearance, had a six-month relationship with inmate Jerome Nunes
Jerome Nunes received a 12-year sentence in 2019 for his role in an eight-member gang that distributed £2 million worth of cocaine across South Wales
Morris worked at HMP Long Lartin, a Category A prison in Worcestershire, where Nunes was serving his 12-year sentence
Cathlyn Orchard, prosecuting, told the court that West Midlands Police began investigating Morris’s conduct in 2022.
“It transpired that she was engaged in an intimate relationship with Nunes using multiple mobile numbers,” she said.
“On October 25, 2022, Nunes’s cell was searched and he threw a sock containing a mobile phone out of his cell window.
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‘That device was recovered along with a phone charger and a phone reader.’
The following day Morris was seen speaking to Nunes and after finishing her shift she called in sick.
Miss Orchard said the investigation revealed that the pair had been communicating with each other over WhatsApp and Snapchat and that over 5,000 messages were recovered.
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 the 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.
Nunes of Newport, pleaded guilty at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court to two offences under the Prison Act 1952 for possessing and using an unauthorised mobile phone
Miss 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.’
Holly Sims, in mitigation for Morris, a mother of two young children, aged eight and nine, said at the time she had been caring for her father who had since died and was going through a divorce.
She said there was no evidence of any physical contact between her and Nunes. She added Morris had also been struggling with her job in the prison and was ‘ashamed and embarrassed’ about her behaviour.
Matthew Bolt, in mitigation for Nunes, said he had already been punished in prison for what he had done and that since being released from his sentence, almost two years ago, he had settled in well and had started a small food business.
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.
‘The Crown Prosecution Service worked closely with the police to build a case which reflected the seriousness of this misconduct, leaving both defendants no option but to plead guilty.
‘We hope this case sends a clear message that those who abuse positions of public trust will be held to account.’