Mum prison guard details how armed robber affair started before she had his baby

Daily Mirror

6 hours ago

Rachel Stanton, 32, was working as a prison guard at HMP Five Wells when she had an relationship with Edwin Poole as he served a 10-and-a-half-year sentence, going on to have his baby
A prison guard who sent steamy photos to an inmate and went on to have his baby has told how her relationship began with the armed robber who ended up back inside after allegedly attacking her. Rachel Stanton, 32, had an affair with Edwin Poole as he served a 10-and-a-half-year sentence at HMP Five Wells in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.
The mum-of-five's relationship with the inmate was revealed after prison staff found three intimate photos and a love letter in his cell. Stanton, of Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, admitted wilful misconduct in public office at Northampton Crown Court last year. She wept in the dock last July as she was sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for 18 months
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She was also ordered to take part in 20 days rehabilitation activity. And now she has opened up about the affair which she claims was down to the stress of her job, while she still denies that the two had sex together in prison.
"He approached me with getting this private visit for his mum. We had a few conversations," she told the Channel 4 documentary UK Prisons - Sex, Drugs & Corruption: UNTOLD. She blames Poole for not 'flushing away' her intimate photos.
"There was a little bit of banter, probably a few inappropriate comments to one another,' she continued. "As soon as I had done it and I had given it to him, I kind of said to him, look, you need to get rid of it. Flush it away. I'll be honest I thought he had. I knew I'd done wrong, obviously I shouldn't have done it, and I hold my hands up."
During her court sentencing, Judge David Herbet KC said: "They found a sexually explicit letter and some intimate images of yourself. CCTV footage shows the two of you together and you were in a room privately, together. Some intimacy must have taken place. She should have known what the boundaries were. It shouldn't take training to know she shouldn't be doing that."
CCTV had caught the pair sneaking into a prison storeroom for an hour of "intimacy", Northampton Crown Court heard. Stanton was suspended after their relationship was discovered in July 2022, while Poole was moved to another prison. She continued to visit her inmate lover and they went on to have a baby together, but have since split up.
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Stanton says the child was conceived after Poole left the prison. He moved into her parents' home after he was freed and now she has told how the relationship turned nasty.
She claimed: "There had been no store room or whatever they called it. My daughter was definitely not conceived in 2022. It wasn't until the end of June 2023 that I fell pregnant. A few months later I saw a different side to him. He assaulted me. He was recalled for breaching probation. That was my saving grace. But I've now got a baby growing inside me with someone that I never ever want to see again in my life."
Stanton had been working as a trainee G4S security first line manager at HMP Five Wells in 2022 when she met Poole. He had been jailed for 10-and-a-half years in 2018 for armed robbery. Lee Egan, defending, said Stanton had not abused her position to smuggle in contraband items or allowed herself to be "exploited".
He added she was an "inexperienced" officer who had been chosen for a training course that would have seen her in charge of a whole landing of men at the super-prison. Stanton, who wore no make-up, jeans and a black top, covered her head with a tote bag as she left court with a friend.