‘Too pretty’ guard smuggled phones into jail to send sex texts to killer
WITH her blonde hair and blue eyes, this former aspiring policewoman looks the picture of innocence. But prison officer Hayley Youngman today finds herself with a criminal record after she was caught smuggling mobile phones into a Category A jail so she could ‘sext’ a murderer.
The 21-year-old became ‘infatuated’ with Lerone Boye – serving 28 years for stabbing a teenager to death – when she began working night shifts at Whitemoor Prison, Cambridgeshire.
They exchanged love letters and sexual text messages when Youngman, then 20, began smuggling contraband into the prison. She had earlier been told by another prisoner she was ‘too pretty’ for the job. Months after assuming her role in September last year, Youngman was taking Boye mobile phones, SIM cards and the then-legal high Spice – a synthetic cannabis known to induce hallucinations and even psychotic episodes.
Once she had smuggled in one item, Boye began to manipulate and threaten Youngman, Cambridge Crown Court heard. She is said to have believed she might be beheaded if she did not do as he said.
Other staff became suspicious and watched Youngman on CCTV dropping off items in a bin from which Boye retrieved them. When she was arrested on February 25, officers found a love letter from Boye hidden in a sock in her car. Analysis of her mobile showed the pair had sent each other around 500 messages, some of which contained ‘torrid sexual content’.
Youngman, of Ely, pleaded guilty to two counts of misconduct in a public office, conveying prohibited articles into a prison and possessing cannabis.
She wept as she was given a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 300 hours of unpaid work. She is now said to be hoping to be a dental nurse.