Her career &

WARDER’S CUDDLES & KISSES WITH INMATE ON HER WING

A DISGRACED prison guard caught having secret “trysts” in a cupboard with a 20-year-old inmate was spared jail.

Stacey Sutherland, 27, said she looked for solace with convicted blackmailer Leon Shooter after her marriage to a fellow prison officer failed and a subsequent relationship with an older prison guard collapsed.

In one love letter, Shooter wrote he liked her being nice to him, but also enjoyed it when she was “aggressive”, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Sutherland, who has a six-year-old son, admitted misconduct in a public office and cried when she was handed an eight-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and complete rehabilitation requirements.

Sutherland, of Marshall Street, Barnard Castle, County Durham, worked at the Deerbolt young offender institution and became an officer last December.

Rachel Masters, prosecuting, said in April a female officer noticed paperwork on Sutherland’s handbag when they went to the toilet at work, and read that it was a love letter from Shooter.

The colleague informed bosses and the authorities escorted her from the premises and an inquiry began.

Two 10-minute prison phone calls Shooter had made to Sutherland using a pseudonym for her were discovered, and more love letters were also found at her home.

In the first phone call, which had been recorded, Shooter said he could not wait to be out, and that they would spend their lives together when he was released.

There was sexual content in the letters, but their relationship did not go further than kissing and cuddling in a