Infatuated prison officer bombarded inmate with texts and sexual phone calls

A PRISON OFFICER exchanged more than 850 texts and 119 calls with her 21-year-old love interest ... who happened to be one of her prisoners.

Chelsea Blackwell, who was sentenced to eight months in prison last week, after she pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office. Picture: Facebook

AN INFATUATED prison officer who phoned her love interest — locked up at the youth offenders’ institute where she worked — more than 100 times in less than a month has been jailed.

Chelsea Blackwell exchanged more than 850 text messages with Emmanuel Callender-Scott, who was reportedly 21 years old, between July 13 and August 5 last year.

Chelsea Blackwell used two different phones to call her love interest, sometimes late at night.

Blackwell wrote Callender-Scott a series of heartfelt letters, the court heard.

She also phoned him around 115 times, with some calls lasting more than two hours and being sexual in nature, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.

After the male inmate’s phone was seized during a cell search at Aylesbury Young Offenders Institution in Buckinghamshire, Blackwell used a second “dirty phone” to make five calls.

The court heard that the guard, now 27, thought they would become a couple after his release, and she wrote him a series of letters which were later found in his cell.

A forensic handwriting report concluded there was “very strong evidence” that Blackwell had written all of them.

Although they were not read out to the court, prosecutor Mr Richard Mandel said her letters proved she was “infatuated” with Callender-Scott.

The prosecutor added: “There were attempts to contact or make calls to the prisoner’s number after the phone was seized from him so she was completely unaware of what had happened in terms of his cell being searched.

Her love interest, said to be 21 years old at the time, was locked up for wounding with intent.

Blackwell initially registered a conflict of interest relating to her relationship with the inmate in December 2015. But after she was moved to a different wing at the start of 2016, she often went back to where the inmate was staying.

After Blackwell, pictured, was sentenced, Police constable Nicola Ambrose said she ‘completely abused her position as a prison officer’

Blackwell’s inappropriate relationship with the inmate was revealed at the end of 2015

“Some of the texts make it really clear that she was infatuated with this prisoner and contacted him — and he contacted her often on a very frequent basis.”

Blackwell’s love interest had been jailed for seven years for wounding with intent.

Before their relationship was revealed, Aylesbury Crown Court heard that Blackwell registered a conflict of interest relating to her relationship with an inmate and was moved from “A wing” — where Callender-Scott was — to “E wing”.

But she could not help but go back and visit her old wing from time to time.

Before admitting her relationship, Blackwell initially denied the charge against her in court.

She told police officers during two interviews that the evidence must have been planted by her colleagues.

But last month she pleaded guilty misconduct in a public office, was sentenced to eight months imprisonment on August 3 and was ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £140.

Blackwell had been a prison officer at the institution since 2015.

Senior Crown Prosecutor Louise Attrill said events like this are “extremely rare”.

Judge Catherine Tulk said 25 per cent of the prisoners in the institution were involved in organised crime while half were involved in some form of gang-related activity

After the sentencing, police constable Nicola Ambrose said: “Blackwell completely abused her position as a prison officer, by choosing to communicate with a serving prisoner through letters, texts and calls knowing that he illegally had a mobile phone inside prison.

“Her actions were completely unacceptable and amounted to misconduct in a public office.”

In June, The Sun revealed how dozens of prison officers were caught sharing “inappropriate relationships” with jailbirds.

Ministry of Justice figures show 43 guards have been punished for being too close to an inmate in the past three years.

This article was originally published on The Sun.