Jailer locked up for trysts with a drug lord in his cell
A PRISON officer who conducted an illicit affair with a notorious gangster behind bars was jailed for two years yesterday.
Stephanie Smithwhite, 40, became besotted with drug lord 56-year-old Curtis Warren at a top security prison and even had a tattoo with his name.
A court heard that Smithwhite ‘fell in love with the wrong man’ as she embarked on the affair – which lasted more than six months.
She admitted to sending Warren a picture of herself in a slinky catsuit, as well as kissing him and performing a sex act in his cell, the jail kitchen and laundry room at HMP Frankland in Durham.
The Liverpool thug, who at one point was on the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated £300million fortune, was once convicted of manslaughter after beating a fellow prisoner to death during a previous sentence.
Warren is now serving 13 years for conspiracy to import drugs and a further ten years for failing to repay almost £198million from the proceeds of his crimes.
Judge Jonathan Carroll told Smithwhite: ‘Perhaps it was his notoriety itself that attracted you to him.’ Prosecutor Rupert Doswell told Durham Crown Court that prison authorities became suspicious after Smithwhite was seen
‘In love with the wrong man’
passing a note to Warren in his cell. She was interviewed and eventually sacked after confessing to the affair. He added that she was also found to have a tattoo of a rose with the name ‘Curtis’ next to it.
Police later discovered there were 213 calls made between the pair – using an illicit mobile phone – from June to December 2018.
They also found 450 sexually explicit letters from Warren. Smithwhite, who denied cutting a hole in her uniform trousers to facilitate physical intimacy and claimed it was an accidental tear, admitted two charges of misconduct in public office. Passing sentence, Judge Carroll told Smithwhite, of Boldon Colliery, South Tyneside: ‘What you did compromised your colleagues and prison security.’