Phone smuggle jail nurse could have 'put lives at risk'

Cartledge was working as a nurse at HMP Forest Bank

A former prison nurse who smuggled a mobile phone into a Salford jail could have put people's lives at risk, police have said.

Leanne Cartledge, 23, of Miles Platting, hid the mobile phone in her clothing and gave it to a prisoner she was in a relationship with.

She admitted taking a prohibited article into the privately-run HMP Forest Bank prison last year.

On Thursday, she was jailed for four months at Minshull Street Crown Court.

Det Con Phil Marsh, of Greater Manchester Police, said: "Cartledge was employed in a position of a trust - a position she abused when she smuggled a prohibited item into the prison and our investigations revealed her actions had serious and far-reaching implications.

"Any time a mobile phone is illegally handed to someone who is in prison, it can give that offender a lifeline to continue their criminality in the outside world which has a knock-on effect for many people, potentially putting them at risk.

"It can also lead to fights between other inmates, bullying and witness intimidation so clearly her actions were both foolish and dangerous."

A spokeswoman for Kalyx, which runs HMP Forest Bank, said they were not able to comment on individual cases.