Bridgend prison officer not guilty of inmate affair misconduct

Ruth Shmylo was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with an inmate while working as a prison officer

A prison officer who had phone sex with an inmate has been found not guilty of misconduct in public office.

Ruth Shmylo, 26, of Treforest, Rhondda Cynon Taf, was cleared at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday.

The charges related to a period between December 2020 and April 2021 when Ms Shmylo worked at HMP Parc in Bridgend.

The trial heard she did not report issues, including that she had phone sex with prisoner Harri Pullen, a convicted drug dealer.

Ms Shmylo's probation period at HMP Parc was terminated in April 2021 but communications continued between the two after she had been dismissed and he was moved to a prison in Manchester.

These were were used in evidence to prove a relationship existed between the two while at HMP Parc.

Ms Shmylo told the court that Pullen threatened her and her family and, because of her poor relationship with other staff at HMP Parc, she had not felt able to report the problem.

The trial heard how Ms Shmylo began working at Parc prison in August 2020 and Pullen was moved to her wing shortly afterwards.

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HMP Parc's head of security Daniel Hayman told the trial that Ms Shmylo had been given training in issues such as anti-corruption and how to deal with manipulative prisoners.

In December 2020, Pullen passed a piece of paper to Ms Shmylo while the two were in the prison servery with a mobile phone number on it.

Ms Shmylo said that when she pushed the piece of paper back, Pullen had made a threat to her, asking: "Do you know what you've just done?"

Asked by defence barrister Clare Wilks why she did not report this Ms Shmylo said: "He would have known it was me."

Ruth Shmylo was a prison officer at HMP Parc in Bridgend

She knew of Pullen's links to organised crime, she added, and that reporting him would therefore have "come with repercussions".

Ms Shmylo insisted that the phone sex had been initiated by Pullen, that she "repeatedly" asked him to stop and viewed them as incidents of "sexual harassment".

In some of the conversations, Ms Shmylo could be heard laughing, telling jokes and lightly teasing Pullen - behaviour, said the prosecution, that did not support her claims that she was reluctant to speak to him.

Ms Shmylo insisted that she thought engaging in conversations was the only way of "trying to damage control the situation".