A senior prison officer has avoided jail after having a fling with an inmate that he thought would be his ‘fairytale ending’.
Tracy Boateng, 26, had a relationship with Vincent Ojo, 34, at HMP Pentonville, north London, between February 25 and April 19 last year.
She admitted misconduct in a public office in February. Cody-worn camera footage captured interactions between her and Ojo, the court heard.
Boateng, of Dagenham, was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court to 12 months imprisonment suspended for 24 months.
She will avoid spending time behind bars because of the impact it would have on her three-month-old daughter, the judge said.
The senior prison officer missed a hearing at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court in January because she was giving birth.
Ojo, 34, was jailed for five years in 2016 after he concealed 25 wraps of cocaine and heroin in his bottom. He has been at Pennington, a category B men’s prison in Islington, since 2020.
The court was shown texts between Boateng and a fellow prison officer discussing the relationship.
‘This guy really believes you are his fairytale ending,’ the guard texted Boateng.
The pair had taken a selfie together, during which Boateng made a V sign and asked Ojo to ‘say cheese’, footage showed.
Addressing Boateng, Judge Caroline English said: ‘This offence is so serious that nothing other than a custodial sentence can be justified.
‘You wholly breached and abused your position by engaging in a highly inappropriate relationship with a prisoner in your charge.
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‘There is however, an exceptional feature in this case, that is your child.
‘One thing is for certain, your child is a total innocent and the impact on such a young baby would be significant.’
She added that ‘for that reason and that reason alone’, she was ‘persuaded to suspend the sentence’.
Earlier this year, former HMP Wandsworth prison officer Linda De Sousa Abreu, 30, was jailed for 15 months after having sex with an inmate in a cell.
Footage of the activity was widely shared on social media.
A Prison Service spokesperson said at the time: ‘While the overwhelming majority of Prison Service staff are hardworking and honest, we’re catching more of the small minority who break the rules by bolstering our Counter Corruption Unit and strengthening our vetting processes.’
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