Prison officer and inmate admit to relationship

HMP Five Wells in Wellingborough is one of the UK's largest prisons and is run by private firm G4S

A prison officer and an inmate who had a sexual relationship have pleaded guilty to misconduct charges.

Alicia Novas, 19, and 30-year-old Declan Winkless, admitted the offences at Northampton Crown Court after she provided her telephone number to the prisoner and failed to report his possession of a phone and cannabis.

Both admitted misconduct in public office between August and December 2024 at HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire.

They also both pleaded guilty to a separate charge of committing misconduct on 23 November last year.

They are due to be sentenced on 5 January.

'Wilfully misconducted'

Novas stood in the dock wearing a black outfit and glasses, and Winkless appeared by video-link from HMP Swaleside in Kent.

The court heard that Novas, acting as a prison custody officer, "wilfully misconducted" herself "in a way which amounted to an abuse of the public's trust".

Winkless is alleged to have encouraged and assisted both offences.

Both defendants admitted making an unauthorised transmission of an image or sound from within a prison, conveying cannabis into HMP Five Wells, and conveying two mobile phones into the category C prison, near Wellingborough.

They also pleaded guilty to making an unauthorised electronic transmission of an image relating to HMP Peterborough between December 2024 and March this year.

Winkless, formerly of South Wigston, Leicestershire, admitted a seventh charge of possessing a device with a sim card at HMP Five Wells without authority on 22 December.

HMP Peterborough is another of the UK's more modern prisons, operated by Sodexo Justice on behalf of the government

The prosecutor did not open the facts against the defendants during the short hearing earlier.

Novas and Winkless both spoke only to confirm their names and enter their pleas.

The 19-year-old, of Raunds, Northamptonshire, had previously been on conditional bail but was remanded into custody after pleading guilty, while a woman sitting in the public gallery cried into a tissue.