HMP Lindholme: UK's biggest prison drug-smuggling gang smashed

A health worker at the heart of the biggest prison drug-smuggling ring ever uncovered has been jailed for more than 10 years.

Amy Hatfield, a mental health nursing assistant at HMP Lindholme in South Yorkshire, "flooded" the jail with drugs by passing packages to prisoners.

She was recruited to the conspiracy by her inmate lover Joseph Whittingham, who was jailed for more than 11 years.

Sixteen people were sentenced for roles in the "complex" operation on Friday.

They included five Lindholme inmates, family members and friends who helped to smuggle weapons and drugs including heroin, MDMA, spice, ketamine and cannabis into the prison and launder the profits.

Inmates could buy almost "any drugs" they wanted inside the prison through the "sophisticated" and highly organised smuggling operation, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

They would place orders through prison drug dealers Whittingham, 35, Jordan Needham, 31, Kieran Murphy, 26, Aneeze Williamson, 30, William Francis, 56, and convicted murderer Anthony Campbell, 38, who used co-conspirators outside jail to arrange shipments of drugs and receive payments.

Knives, mobile phones and prescription drugs were also carried into the jail by Hatfield, 38, as well as by relatives and friends who visited prisoners in Lindholme, where the contraband would sell for up to 10 times its value.

Judge Kirstie Watson said drug-dealing in prison was "an instrument of exploitation, oppression and power" and "undermined discipline and good order" as well as putting inmates' health at risk.

Mobile phone footage obtained by police showed two young inmates under the influence of spice, naked and with makeshift leashes around their necks, being encouraged to "fight like dogs".

Toxicology tests found the spice recovered from Hatfield matched a batch which killed an inmate, Kyle Batsford, who had been bullied into testing the drug in September 2019.

The court heard another inmate was left in a coma for 10 days and permanently lost the use of his legs after he was pressured by Needham into being a "guinea pig" for a new batch of spice.

South Yorkshire Police uncovered the smuggling network after Hatfield, of Hawthorne Street, Barnsley, was caught arriving at work with drugs with an estimated prison value of £1m.

She was arrested in October 2019 after officers stopped her entering Lindholme with MDMA, cannabis and Ribena bottles filled with spice, as well as tobacco, anabolic steroids, mobile phones and chargers.

The nursing assistant had been placed under surveillance by anti-corruption detectives following a tip-off she had begun a sexual relationship with Whittingham, from Bradford, behind bars.

Judge Kirstie Watson said the affair - in which the pair met for sex in prison and swapped explicit photos on secret mobile phones - was a "significant breach of trust and abuse of position".

"When he first expressed feelings for you, instead of reporting it to your supervisors as you were trained to do, you embraced it," she told Hatfield.

The judge said Whittingham had been able to "exploit" Hatfield to smuggle drugs because she was "infatuated" with him and hoped they would set up a life together after his release.

She was paid £1,000 to carry contraband into the prison for inmates and arranged bogus mental health appointments to hand over packages.

The court heard drug use spiked in Lindholme after Hatfield began working in the prison in September 2018 and fell again after her arrest.

"It must have been clear to you the impact the increased use of drugs was having on the prison population and the increased workload and stress on your colleagues,"Judge Watson told Hatfield as she jailed her for 10 years and two months.

Whittingham, one of the leaders of the smuggling network, was jailed for 11 years and four months.

The judge said Whittingham's access to drugs through Hatfield gave him "power in prison and significant financial gain".

Whittingham, who recruited his wife Lucy and father Paul as "bankers" for the conspiracy, boasted to other inmates of the money that would await him when he left prison, the court heard.

In the months following her arrest, police uncovered other routes through which drugs were smuggled into Lindholme as they unravelled what they said was the largest and most complex prison conspiracy ever seen in the UK.

Campbell, who is serving a life sentence for the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old boy in Liverpool in 2004, would receive deliveries from prison visitors arranged by his mother Deborah Stoddard, 56.

Judge Watson said the "well-run operation" had gone undetected for three years and in two previous prisons before Campbell was moved to Lindholme.

"Such was the sophistication of the conspiracy" the pair were able to keep the supply of drugs flowing even when Campbell was placed in segregation, the judge added.

Campbell was sentenced to a further 11 years in prison, to begin when he would have been eligible for parole after his current jail term. Stoddard, of Shorefields Village, Liverpool, was jailed for nine-and-a-half years.

Prosecutors said Needham and his partner Courtney Ward, 26, "exploited almost every possible avenue" to smuggle contraband into Lindholme, including fake confidential mail and an attempt to intercept another inmate's hospital appointment.

Judge Watson said the couple had discussed how they could pay Hatfield to smuggle drugs into the prison "every day".

Needham, who also recruited his mother Audrey into the conspiracy, was jailed for nine-and-a-half years.

The court heard Ward, of Rose Ash Lane, Nottingham, had been in an abusive relationship with Needham since she was 18 and was acting on his orders and under his influence.

But the judge said she had been "instrumental in organising" smuggling from outside prison and sentenced her to four years and six months behind bars.

The other sentences were:

A 17th defendant, Francis, of Hogan Gardens, Nottingham, has admitted possession with intent to supply drugs and conveying drugs into prison. He will be sentenced separately in December.

Det Sgt Gareth Gent, the head of South Yorkshire Police's prison crime anti-corruption unit, said: "The amount of work that went into piecing together the activities of the network of criminals both in and out of the prison system, working to smuggle dangerous and illegal substances into HMP Lindholme for money, is considerable.

"While I am pleased today's sentencing sees a number of this group behind bars, our work to tackle the smuggling of illegal items into prisons does not stop here. Prisons should be places of safety where inmates can get help and support as they work towards rehabilitation."

Prison inspectors this week warned HMP Lindholme had a serious drug problem with many inmates developing substance abuse issues due to "a lack of purposeful activity".

In a report following a "really worrying" inspection in July, HM Inspectorate of Prisons said drones "were often able to fly in contraband undetected" and there was "no routine searching of staff" or X-ray machines at the gate.

An HM Prison Service spokesperson said it was "taking decisive action to address the serious issues raised".

Following Friday's sentencing, Damian Hands, the Prisons Minister, said: "The vast majority of staff in our prisons are hardworking and honest, working every day to cut crime and protect the public.

"As this case shows, we will not hesitate to take the strongest possible action against those who think the rules do not apply to them."

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