Prison teacher took codeine to jail for inmate she was having relationship with

A prison maths teacher who smuggled codeine into jail for an inmate she was having a relationship with was caught when a love letter was discovered in her handbag, a court heard.

Kelsey Calvert was spared jail after pleading guilty to misconduct in a public office and carrying a prohibited article into prison while she was employed at HMP Holme House, a category C men’s prison in Stockton-on-Tees.

The 28-year-old sobbed in the dock as she was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, after a judge said she had had her “head turned by a deeply manipulative criminal”.

Teesside Crown Court heard Calvert worked at the jail from April to November 2022 until she was searched on her way into work one day and a letter was found in her handbag suggesting she was having a personal relationship with a serving prisoner.

She also admitted bringing codeine that had been prescribed for her father into the jail because the prisoner told her he needed it “to cope with the pain”.

Prosecutor Shaun Dryden told the court: “(Calvert) said the prisoner had begun writing her letters which she initially refused but he persisted and she had fallen for, in her words, ‘all the bullshit’.”

Calvert also confirmed she had been speaking to the prisoner as one of his list of contacts using a false name.

An investigation found love letters between the two in the prisoner’s cell and Calvert’s home, and police also uncovered seven phone calls between them confirming they had a sexual relationship, Mr Dryden said.

In the calls the inmate also told Calvert he was in trouble and needed to get drugs into the prison, seemingly in order to pay off a debt, it was said.

When interviewed by police Calvert said she had brought codeine to the prisoner on one occasion as he was suffering from pain after having a tooth removed, the court heard.

Mr Dryden said: “The defendant said the prisoner asked her to collect a letter from a friend but when she met this male she believed the envelope contained drugs so hadn’t done that.”

In mitigation, the court heard Calvert was “mortified by what she was influenced to do” and had been “taken advantage of and manipulated by someone who expressed feelings for her”.

Giving her a suspended prison sentence, Judge Joanne Kidd told Calvert: “You had your head turned by a deeply manipulative criminal who groomed you from first to last.

“I have listened to the phone calls that passed between you. You loved him and he told you that he loved you, and such was your level of vulnerability … that you wanted to hear what he said.”

Calvert, of Ryhope, Sunderland, was also ordered to carry out 140 hours of unpaid work and 20 rehabilitation activity days.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “The overwhelming majority of people working in prisons are hardworking and honest but our Counter-Corruption Unit is catching more of the small minority who are not.”