Stephanie Smithwhite (40) admitted two counts of misconduct in a public office, one relating to their sexual relationship, said to have lasted between June and December 2018, and the second for failing to report that she knew Warren had access to a phone.
The prison officer, who tattooed herself with the drug trafficker’s name, denied cutting a hole in the trousers of her prison uniform for a sexual purpose, but the sentencing judge said it was hard to imagine why else it was there.
She was an officer at the maximum security HMP Frankland near Durham, where Warren – once named in the Sunday Times Rich List – has been serving time. Liverpool-born Warren, once one of Interpol’s most wanted criminals, was jailed for 13 years in 2009 after Jersey officers bugged a hire car he was travelling in across Europe. In 2011 Warren appealed against his sentence, handed down in Jersey, on the grounds that the evidence against him had been obtained unlawfully. However, his conviction was upheld by the UK Privy Council.
He then appealed to the Lieutenant-Governor to resend the case to the Court of Appeal, but was unsuccessful.
In 2014 Warren learned he faced another ten years in jail after refusing to hand over almost £200 million to the authorities.
Durham Crown Court heard yesterday [FRI] that the pair indulged in sexual activity during secret liaisons in his cell, a kitchen and a laundry room at the jail, which houses some of the UK’s most dangerous criminals.
She also sent the 56-year-old Liverpudlian a photo of herself wearing a catsuit and told investigators how he became obsessed with her, and would buzz from his cell to call for her attention.
Judge Jonathan Carroll said that Warren was a ‘major league offender’ who tried to manipulate her into bringing contraband into the prison after starting their affair, and asked her about prison intelligence and security cameras.
The judge said she was infatuated with him, as demonstrated by her tattoo of the name Curtis next to a rose.
‘Your conduct represents the very most grave breach of trust placed in you,’ he said.
Warren has been known to have previously run his criminal enterprises from behind bars using mobile phones, but, it was heard, Smithwhite did not report him using a phone to contact her.
He has also been known to have started relationships with prison staff previously. While on remand in Jersey in 2007, the former bouncer is said to have had an affair with a former HMP La Moye senior manager, Teresa Rodrigues.
Ms Rodrigues told the Daily Mail that the relationship lasted two years until 2009 and they had sex in his cell ‘most days’.
