Twelve months for besotted prison worker who suggled drugs into jail
A besotted jail worker who smuggled drugs into a prison after falling for one of the inmates has been locked up for 12 months.
Hannah Stewart's sentence was significantly reduced because she gave vital evidence against the three men – including ex-lover Andrelle Leedham – who were also involved in the plot at Featherstone Prison, which serves Shropshire.
Mr Gerard Quirke, prosecuting, told Derby Crown Court: "She provided key evidence."
He doubted whether Leedham, together with Featherstone inmates Christopher Lewis and Ricardo Edwards, would have been convicted if she had remained silent.
Stewart, who had been an operational support officer at the prison for four years, met Leedham who was in jail for blackmail.
A relationship developed which blossomed for a short time after his release last August. Leedham moved to a flat in Telford and in November persuaded Stewart to take a package he had supplied into the prison. It held synthetic and skunk cannabis, 700 anabolic steroid tablets, eight bottles of spirits and seven mobile phones.
Stewart was approached by Lewis – who had links to Leedham – and followed his instruction to give it to fellow inmate Edwards who was stopped almost immediately by other prison officers who realised he was in the wrong part of the jail.
Both Stewart's father and brother worked at the prison at the time and the family later had a panic alarm installed by police at their Featherstone home, the court was told.
Leedham was jailed for four years after being convicted of conspiracy to smuggle drugs, anabolic steroids and mobile phones into Featherstone. Lewis and Edwards each changed their plea to guilty to conspiracy to smuggle cannabis into the jail. The change of heart came as their trial was about to start and the trio were dealt with last week. Stewart's family are standing by her.
