• Female Guard Behind Bars for 4000 Flirty Messages to Inmate, the misconduct highlights serious issues within correctional facilities.
• Emotional connections can blur professional boundaries.
• Consequences include jail time and damaged reputations.

A female prison officer named Toni Cole, aged 29, has been given a one-year prison sentence for sharing over 4,000 intimate messages with an inmate at HMP Five Wells, a recently established prison situated in Northamptonshire. Cole was convicted of exchanging a total of 4,369 messages of a personal nature with the inmate.

During the court proceedings at Northampton Crown Court, it was disclosed that Cole had taken part in 18 video calls with the inmate, engaging in interactions characterized as being ‘sexualized or flirtatious.’ Additional information revealed that Cole would sit on the inmate’s lap, kiss him, and even give him advance notice about upcoming cell searches.

These transgressions occurred between December 9, 2022, and January 25, 2023, until the prison authorities discovered Cole’s inappropriate behavior. She admitted to the charge of misconduct in public office and was directed to pay a £187 surcharge along with serving her one-year jail term.

Cole’s case is not unique, as she is the second officer in recent years to be convicted of misconduct in public office at the same Wellingborough jail.

Last summer, Rachel Stanton, 31, received a suspended sentence for her involvement in a romantic relationship with an inmate, armed robber Edwin Poole. Staff found intimate images and a love letter in Poole’s cell, and CCTV footage captured the pair entering a prison storeroom for over an hour.