Reputation are in tatters

cleaning cupboard, the court heard. It started when Shooter, a cleaner on the wing where she worked, told Sutherland he would miss her when she was on annual leave, and they kissed in the cupboard.

Sutherland made full admissions to police officers when she was arrested.

Shooter had previously been locked up for blackmail, and at the time of the affair he was on remand, having been recalled to prison.

Rebecca Suttle, defending Sutherland, said: “Her career and her reputation are in tatters.”

She said the relationship had not gone beyond kissing, explaining: “While I do not seek to minimise the offending, it does not extend to more than the occasional tryst in a cleaning cupboard.”

The offence happened when Sutherland, who resigned from the Prison Service and now works as a waitress, was going through a difficult time, her barrister said.

“Her marriage had not long ago broken down and she had engaged in a relationship with a fellow prison officer considerably older than her,” Miss Suttle said.

She said the marriage ended as a result of the relationship with the older man.

“Both gentlemen were employed by the Prison Service and the backlash had been that her professional life became very difficult as well.”

She added: “She found herself confiding in Mr Shooter and seeking solace from him.” Judge Stephen Ashurst said he was taking the exceptional course of not immediately jailing Sutherland, taking into consideration her early guilty plea and the fact she was sole carer for her son.

He said: “You are, I know, ashamed of what you did and the fact you have ended your career in the circumstances where you naively embarked upon this relationship with someone who you ought to have steered well clear of, given his situation and yours.”