A prison officer who had sex with an inmate has been jailed for 15 months. Linda De Sousa Abreu was charged in June after a video went viral on social media showing her having sex with an inmate at HMP Wandsworth in London.
De Sousa Abreu admitted misconduct in public office and appeared to be sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court on Monday, January 6. The defendant sat in the dock in court and only spoke to confirm her name and address.
The video which showed the uniformed officer having sex with inmate Linton Weirich emerged last summer and was widely shared online. The footage, recorded by a fellow inmate, showed the sexual activity happened inside a cell in the prison.
During the footage the person filming is heard saying: “This is how we roll in Wandsworth.” After seeing the clip had gone viral, the mother-of-one attempted to fly to Madrid and later Madeira, where she had family, to wait for things to “calm down”. She was arrested at Heathrow Airport after notifying the prison of her travel plans.
(Image: PA)
De Sousa Abreu also asked the judge to consider two further offences, one being sexual activity with the same prisoner earlier that day and the other being a separate sexual encounter with Weirich within at least three to four days of the main offence.
Abreu was born in Venezuela, has a Portuguese passport and has one previous conviction with “no relevance” dating back to 2014, the court heard. In a prepared statement written by De Sousa Abreu following her arrest she claimed she was “terrified for her own safety” prior to the offences.
The court heard Abreu initially told police she was “acting under duress” which Ms Marshall said was later found to be “entirely false”. Ms Marshall added: “The crown say there is premeditation and clearly some planning. She had to make sure she would be on the wing alone with him in order to do this, she also arranged for (the second prisoner) to be present to keep watch while it went on.
“She has undermined the authority of all prison staff – she specifically and severely undermined the positive effect that a female officer can have in male environment in a male prison, and how a female officer may be perceived. [She also] undermined the trust of prisoners and the integrity of the staff.”
Rajiv Menon, KC, defending, said Abreu has “taken full responsibility for her actions” while also noting the “conditions she was working in at Wandsworth prison. She accepts full responsibility for engaging consensually in sexual activity with the prisoners and accepts full responsibility for allowing that encounter to be filmed – no ifs and no buts.”
Linda De Sousa Abreu
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Judge Martin Edmunds KC told De Sousa Abreu: “You engaged in sexual activity with a prisoner. That compromised your role as an officer, and was misconduct which undermines discipline within the prison, and puts fellow officers at increased risk.
“You knew that conduct was forbidden and forbidden for good reason.” He added: “From what I know about you, you were certainly not naive about the media or social media.
“It must have been obvious that the recording would be shown around and shared, at least amongst prisoners at Wandsworth where it would do the most harm. Whether you intended it or not, the fact is that the video went viral, and caused great harm.
“Many offenders do not intend the harm that their offending causes, but they nevertheless bear responsibility for it.” Judge Edmunds concluded: “The consequence of the recording going viral, a result that you did not intend but which was certainly a consequence of your offence, has been that prison officers have faced heckling and harassment.
“They have been confronted with sexualised images falsely suggesting that your conduct is typical. Children of your fellow female prison officers have been teased as to what their mothers may do at work. It is inevitable that the damage for which you were responsible at Wandsworth has spread, to some degree, through the prison estate.”
HMP Wandsworth governor Andrew Davy said in a statement read to the court: “It has taken many years for female staff to be respected and treated professionally in a male dominated environment. The action of this defendant has undone years of positive and rewarding prisoner interactions in less than a day.”
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “While the overwhelming majority of Prison Service staff are hardworking and honest, we’re catching more of the small minority who break the rules by bolstering our Counter Corruption Unit and strengthening our vetting processes. As today’s sentencing demonstrates, where officers do fall below our high standards we won’t hesitate to take robust action.”