Prison officer jailed for having sex with inmate

A former prison officer has been jailed for having romantic relationships with two inmates and plotting to smuggle drug-soaked envelopes into prison.

Isabelle Dale swore her “undying love” to prisoners Shahid Sharif and Connor Money while working at HMP Coldingley in Surrey, said a judge.

The 23-year-old had sex with convicted robber Sharif in the prison’s chapel area, her trial heard.

She got engaged to Sharif and later plotted with him and his associate, Lilea Sallis, to smuggle spice, a synthetic cannabinoid, into HMP Swaleside in Kent.

Dale was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment for two counts of misconduct in a public office and one count of conspiring to convey a List A article into prison.

Sharif, who is already in custody, and Sallis were also jailed for the latter charge for 27 months and two and a half years respectively.

Sentencing the three on Tuesday at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Christopher Hehir called Dale a “thoroughly devious and untruthful and manipulative young woman”.

He said he accepted she had “some vulnerabilities”, but she had tried to use them as a “shield and an excuse” for her actions.

The judge added that he suspected she had “joined the prison service with a view to becoming involved in criminal activities with prisoners”.

“She wanted to do it,” he said. “She’s attention seeking.”

Dale, from Portsmouth, started working at HMP Coldingley – her first and only posting – in September 2021.

She had had “at least some contact” with Sharif by January and the pair were engaged by May, the court heard.

Defending Dale, Syam Soni said her offending was influenced by her mental health difficulties, including depression, anxiety, emotionally unstable personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

He claimed Dale was “ill-equipped” for the prison environment and more vulnerable than others.

Sharif was at the time serving a 12-year and 10-month sentence for an “extremely violent robbery of a jewellers on the south coast”, Judge Hehir said.

Other prison officers “obviously had clocked on to what was going on”, he added.

After the chapel incident, Sharif moved to Swaleside prison and Dale signed off work sick on reduced pay.

Dale visited him five times between September and October 2022, sometimes with his family members, the court was told.

She had joined his list of approved visitors by concealing her job role, the judge said.

He added Dale showed she had become “thoroughly corrupt” when she tried to persuade Sharif’s sister to sneak in a USB into prison for him, though the sibling declined.

Dale – who was found to have Sharif’s street name tattooed on her neck – resigned as a prison officer before she was arrested on her sixth visit.

The court heard Dale also conveyed sensitive information to Money, with whom she also had an intimate relationship.

A postal strike foiled Dale, Sharif and Sallis’ plan to bring envelopes dipped in spice into Swaleside prison on the Isle of Sheppey.

It was organised for Dale to travel to Brighton to meet Sallis and collect the envelopes, the court heard.

However, Sallis backed out because of a conflict with Sharif about prices and content he was posting about her on social media, the judge said.

Sharif had claimed in messages he could make £3,000 a week from selling the spice inside jail, which the judge said may have been an exaggeration.