Prison nurse and inmate lover among 16 jailed for ‘flooding’ jail with drugs

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A prison nurse and her inmate lover who "flooded" a jail with drugs are among 16 people sentenced today in what is believed to be the UK's largest-ever prison drugs conspiracy.

Amy Hatfield, 38, who worked as a mental health nursing assistant at HMP Lindholme, near Doncaster, smuggled illicit packages to inmate Joseph Whittingham, with whom she became "infatuated" after they started a sexual relationship in 2018.

On Friday, Hatfield and Whittingham were among 16 defendants - which included other inmates, family members and associates - to be handed sentences totalling more than 80 years at Sheffield Crown Court. A 17th defendant, William Francis, will be sentenced at a later date.

The group were involved in a smuggling network which brought contraband, including drugs, knives and mobile phones, into Doncaster jail between 2018 and 2020.

Sheffield Crown Court heard six of the defendants were serving prisoners who co-ordinated the smuggling network and sold the prohibited items to other inmates, while others were recruited to smuggle the items into the jail and launder the proceeds through their bank accounts.

Sentencing 16 of the defendants, Judge Kirstie Watson called the supply of drugs within prisons, including heroin, MDMA, spice, ketamine and cannabis, a “serious social evil”.

The judge told Hatfield the relationship with Whittingham was “a significant breach of trust”.

Instead of reporting his advances, “you embraced it”, Judge Watson told the former nurse. The court then heard how “the relationship became intimate”, involving “sexual activity within the prison and the exchanging of sexual images”.

However, Judge Watson told Whittingham that he “exploited” Hatfield’s feelings for him. Despite his attempts to “lay the blame at Amy Hatfield’s door”, the judge said: “I am satisfied that you recruited her.”

The court heard Whittingham had a “leading role” in the operation and also recruited his wife Lucy and father Paul - who both received suspended sentences on Friday - to receive payments for the contraband.

But the judge also said Hatfield “abused” her position to get illicit packages into the prison “for financial gain”. She added: “It must have been clear to you the impact that increased drug use was having, and yet you continued to flood HMP Lindholme with drugs and phones. You even brought in a knife.”

Hatfield, of HMP New Hall, was jailed for 10 years and two months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply class A and class B drugs, conspiracy to convey drugs and phones into prison, conveying knives into prison, and money laundering.

Whittingham, of HMP Leeds, has been sentenced to 11 years and four months in prison after admitting conspiracy to supply class B drugs, and conspiracy to convey drugs, phones and a knife into prison.

South Yorkshire Police uncovered the smuggling ring when Hatfield was stopped and searched on her way into work in September 2019 and found with contraband worth an estimated £1m by prison experts. It included MDMA, Ribenna bottles filled with two litres of liquid spice, cannabis, ketamine and mobile phones.

A subsequent search of the mental health unit where she worked found a further litre of spice. Hatfield was arrested the following month.

Officers unravelled a “highly complex criminal network” operating inside HMP Lindholme over the subsequent four-year investigation, leading to Hatfield and a further 16 co-conspirators being charged and convicted.

Judge Watson told the court that there were seven spice-related deaths at Lindholme between 2018 and 2019, but none in the seven months following Hatfield’s arrest - although the conspiracy did continue after she left.

Among the deaths was HMP Lindholme prisoner Kyle Batsford, who died in September 2019 when he was forced to take the drug spice to test its potency. The inquest into his death heard that the drug was prevalent in the prison and some prisoners encouraged vulnerable inmates to smoke the drug to test its effects.

The court heard on Friday that toxicology tests found the spice taken by Batsford upon his death matched a batch of the drug recovered from Hatfield upon her arrest.

Another inmate who was sold spice by Jordan Needham, who was jailed for nine years on Friday, spent 10 days in a coma and lost the use of his legs and full sight in one of his eyes, the court was told.

Judge Watson said that three litres of spice were recovered in total in the conspiracy case. This comes to 216,000 doses, with each selling for £50 behind bars, she added.

It comes as inspectors visiting HMP Lindholme found 21 per cent of the prisoners in the South Yorkshire jail had developed a dependency on drugs since being locked up. Half of the 898 prisoners at the all-male category C prison said it was easy to get drugs, with drones being used to bring them in.

Drugs were also responsible for prisoners’ debt problems, which in turn fuelled higher than average levels of violence.

HM Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said that the rife substance abuse issues meant that prisoners were not being rehabilitated in jail, but were instead being released into the community at a heightened risk to the public.

Mr Taylor said: “This was a really worrying inspection of a prison fundamentally failing to deliver this with some potentially very dangerous men, and arguably allowing the risks to heighten by failing to get on top of a really serious drug problem.”

Prisons minister Damian Hinds added: “The vast majority of staff in our prisons are hardworking and honest, working every day to cut crime and protect the public.

“As this case shows, we will not hesitate to take the strongest possible action against those who think the rules do not apply to them, and we have bolstered the Counter-Corruption Unit that works round the clock to clamp down on the tiny minority who undermine the service with their dangerous behaviour.”

Here are the details relating to the other defendants: