A former prison officer has been jailed for having romantic relationships with two inmates and plotting to smuggle drug-soaked envelopes into prison.
Isabelle Dale swore her “undying love” to prisoners Shahid Sharif and Connor Money while working at HMP Coldingley in Surrey, said a judge.
The 23-year-old had sex with convicted robber Sharif in the prison’s chapel area, her trial heard.
She got engaged to Sharif and later plotted with him and his associate, Lilea Sallis, to smuggle spice, a synthetic cannabinoid, into HMP Swaleside in Kent.
Dale was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment for two counts of misconduct in a public office and one count of conspiring to convey a List A article into prison.
Sharif, who is already in custody, and Sallis were also jailed for the latter charge for 27 months and two and a half years respectively.
Sentencing the three on Tuesday at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Christopher Hehir called Dale a “thoroughly devious and untruthful and manipulative young woman”.
He said he accepted she had “some vulnerabilities”, but she had tried to use them as a “shield and an excuse” for her actions.
The judge added that he suspected she had joined “the prison service with a view to becoming involved in criminal activities with prisoners”.
“She wanted to do it,” he said. “She’s attention seeking.”
Dale, from Portsmouth, started working at HMP Coldingley – her first and only posting – in September 2021.
She had had “at least some contact” with Sharif by January and the pair were engaged by May, the court heard.
Defending Dale, Syam Soni said her offending was influenced by her mental health difficulties, including depression, anxiety, emotionally unstable personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
He claimed Dale was “ill-equipped” for the prison environment and more vulnerable than others.
The court heard Dale also conveyed sensitive information to Money, with whom she also had an intimate relationship.
A postal strike foiled Dale, Sharif and Sallis’ plan to bring envelopes dipped in spice into Swaleside prison on the Isle of Sheppey.
It had been organised for Dale to travel to Brighton to meet Sallis and collect the envelopes, the court heard.
Sharif was at the time serving a 12-year and 10-month sentence for an “extremely violent robbery of a jewellers on the south coast”, Judge Hehir said..
Other prison officers “obviously had clocked on to what was going on”, he added.