Female prison officer who fell for gangster and smuggled £35k of drugs into jail for him is locked up for three years
Olivia Johnson, 27, attempted to sneak in 88 sheets of paper soaked with the synthetic drug Spice for dangerous inmate Javelle Taylor while working at HMP Highpoint in Suffolk.
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Johnson was jailed for three-and-a-half years after admitting misconduct in a public office, acquiring criminal property and conspiring to take contraband into prison.
Ipswich Crown Court heard how the shamed guard had 'compromised herself' with Taylor — a south London crook serving 12 years for firearms offences since 2019.
The pair exchanged flirty and drug-related texts, with Johnson allegedly telling him: 'I can't figure out how I will get it through but I will figure it out.'
She allegedly went on to promise: 'I'll message you as soon as I'm done at work so you know it's where it needs to be.'
Upon her arrest in September 2022, officers found dozens of Spice-stained sheets in her bag worth a staggering £35,200 behind bars.
Detectives also uncovered almost £15,000 in suspicious payments from Taylor's contacts into her bank account over nine months.
A search of her red Toyota Aygo later revealed a black iPhone 13 filled with intimate messages where Johnson repeatedly told Taylor she loved him.
Passing sentence, Recorder Richard Christie, KC, blasted her crimes: "The trafficking into the prison and the subsequent use of drugs and mobile telephones in prison undermines the good order and discipline of the establishment, impacts on the health and safety of prisoners, staff and visitors.
"It undermines rehabilitation of prisoners and supports ongoing criminality, both within the prison and external to the prison.
"You both took drugs into the prison and formed a relationship with the prisoner, Javelle Taylor. He was in prison for serious offences."
The judge said Johnson tried to avoid a search on the day she was caught: "You tried to turn around and go to the laboratory, knowing as you must have done that you were carrying 88 sheets of paper impregnated with spice, a class B drug.
"The value of each sheet is said to be £400, thus a huge total of £35,200 worth of those drugs."
He added: "Although you say you committed these offences because you were in an intimate relationship with the prisoner, Javelle Taylor, that it is more likely that they were committed for financial gain.
"I take the view that it's a bit of both. Both financial gain and because you professed love for him."
Johnson, now working as an estate agent in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was described as being in an 'emotionally-dependant' relationship with Taylor.
Her barrister, Jimmy Ogunshakin, told the court she was remorseful: "She stands before you today sorry, filled with regret and without excuse.
"She had lost her way somewhere along the line. She felt in a male-dominated environment that there wasn't anyone to trust.
"It became very difficult for her to get out of it. She found herself trapped. Certainly she lost her way, and for that she is very, very sorry."
But Recorder Christie said only jail would suffice: "You were in a relationship. You did supply class B drugs. In my judgement a deterrent sentence is called for in this case."
The case comes amid a surge of female prison guards being caught in illicit affairs with inmates.
At least 30 have been sacked in the past three years — a huge rise compared to just nine between 2017 and 2019.
In January, ex-Wandsworth officer Linda De Sousa Abreu was jailed for 15 months after a video of her having sex with a prisoner surfaced online.
Katie Evans, 26, called herself her inmate lover's 'queen' before being jailed for 21 months in March for smuggling drugs and boasting of sex acts with lag Daniel Brownley at HMP Doncaster.
Morgan Farr Varney, 24, was caged for ten months in April after being caught slipping into a cupboard with crack dealer Jordan Stones, 30, who pinned racy snaps of her to his cell walls.
And Cherrie-Ann Saddington, 29, avoided jail in May after smuggling a syringe to artificially inseminate herself with a sex offender's sperm at HMP The Verne in Dorset. She later miscarried.
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