A female prison guard has been spared jail for having an affair with an inmate jailed for armed robbery and having his baby.
Rachel Stanton, 31, was in a relationship with Edwin Poole while he was serving a 10-and-a-half year sentence in HMP Five Wells, Wellingborough.
The mum-of-five’s relationship with Poole was uncovered when prison staff found three intimate photographs and a sexy love letter in his cell.
CCTV also caught the pair going into a prison storeroom for an hour of ‘intimacy’, a court heard.
Stanton was suspended following the discovery of their relationship in July 2022 and he was moved to another prison.
She continued to visit him and they went on to have a baby together but have since split up.
Stanton, of Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, admitted wilful misconduct in public officer at Northampton Crown Court.
She wept in the dock as she was sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for 18 months and ordered to take part in 20 days rehabilitation activity.
Sentencing Stanton on Tuesday, Judge David Herbert KC said: ‘You should have known better.
‘Your offending is so serious it demands a custodial sentence.
‘I have to sentence you for a single offence. In short you had a relationship with a prisoner.
‘There was clear undisputable evidence between you that was discovered.
‘They found a sexually explicit letter and some intimate images of yourself.
‘CCTV footage shows the two of you together and you were in a room privately, together. Some intimacy must have taken place.
‘She should have known what the boundaries were. It shouldn’t take training to know she shouldn’t be doing that.’
Judge Herbert gave Stanton credit for her guilty plea saying he was satisfied the relationship with Poole was ‘entirely consensual’.
He added: ‘If you can stay out of trouble you have nothing to fear but it will be hanging over your head – work hard at the order.’
Stanton had been working as a trainee G4S security first line manager at HMP Five Wells in 2022 when she met Poole.
He was jailed for 10-and-a-half years in 2018 for armed robbery.
Lee Egan, defending, said Stanton had not abused her position to smuggle in contraband items or allowed herself to be ‘exploited’.
He added she was an ‘inexperienced’ officer who had been chosen for a training course that would have seen her in charge of a whole landing of men at the super-prison.
Stanton covered her head with a tote bag as she left court with a friend.
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