Corruption & bribery behind bars exposed as ex-con reveals lags pay £500 for KFC & how inmates have sex with guards
And they will shell out as much as £200 for a pack of Rizla fag papers to be sneaked into jail.
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Corruption and bribery are rife in British prisons
Credit: Alamy
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UK Prisons Exposed: Sex, Drugs and Corruption, which is available to stream on Channel 4 from tonight, is presented by ex-inmate David Navarro
The bribery behind bars is revealed in a documentary that also lifts the lid on how lags get their hands on booze and drugs — and have sexual relations with warders.
UK Prisons Exposed: Sex, Drugs and Corruption, which is available to stream on Channel 4 from tonight, is presented by ex-inmate David Navarro.
He has spent a decade in and out of custody so knows the dodgy dealings that go on — with officers often turning a blind eye, or up to their necks in it.
The documentary even features footage secretly shot by cons to show off their often sizeable stashes of contraband — known in the trade as 'bird'.
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Weed is heaped in a cell, along with a pile of mobile phones, bottles of high-end Ciroc vodka, Courvoisier brandy, Wray & Nephew rum and boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, plus KFC, Nando's, McDonald's and Chinese takeaway feasts.
'That bird just keeps on coming,' a man can be heard chuckling.
Another adds: 'It's like Carphone Warehouse.'
Bringing things in, that's their (officers) bread & butter. It might be a pack of Rizlas for £200. I've seen it so many times on different occasions
Nathan
But officers not earning big money will often stand back and do nothing.
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In one clip, a warder smells drugs but just says: 'I told you, open the f***ing window.'
A prisoner called Nathan, wearing a balaclava as a disguise, claims that many staff — who are on about £33,000 a year — are wide open to bungs.
Prisoner who had sex with female guard is violently attacked while holding baby in family visit – fracturing tot's skull
He reveals: 'I have seen it so many times.
'It could have been a Nando's from outside or a KFC.
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'It could be phones, it could be drugs.
'It could be anything.'
Asked how much prisoners pay for deliveries, Nathan adds: 'That all depends on the officer.
Secret affair
'If she wants to say to you, '500 quid' and you really want it, then you're gonna pay 500 quid for a KFC bargain bucket.
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'That's an expensive KFC.'
He adds of the guards: 'Bringing things in, that's their bread and butter.
'It might be a pack of Rizlas for one hundred, two hundred quid.'
Big-money backhander payments are often processed by someone on the outside.
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But prisoners also blackmail officers into bringing them banned items, by amassing personal text messages to use against them.
Nathan says of getting guards to play ball: 'You've got to build up slowly, slowly, build up your relationship on the wing, test the waters or be flirty — do what you gotta do until you secure the bag.
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Prisoner Nathan claims that many staff — who are on about £33,000 a year — are wide open to bungs, pictured being interviewed by David
Credit: Channel 4
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Former prisoner Beatrice, who did time for money laundering, says guards make moves on inmates
Credit: Channel 4
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'If there are text messages . . . I've got you under my thumb.'
Meanwhile, another jailbird reveals how lusty lags get it on with prison visitors as well as officers.
In a video call made on an illegal phone, he says: 'We call it patterning up with them.
'It's a mixture of male and female.
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'It could even be your healthcare worker, it could be your education teacher, it could be anybody.'
A former warder who gives her name as just Rachel, was a married mother of four when she began a secret affair with an armed robber serving a ten-year sentence.
Rachel, 29, says about her old job: 'The hours were ridiculous, the overtime was ridiculous, it ruined my marriage because I was never there.
'We hit rock bottom, I took my ring off.'
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An inmate then started coming on to her at work.
She recalls: 'He approached me wanting help, we had a few conversations.
'There was banter, inappropriate comments — then I shared photos and a sexually explicit letter.
Storeroom romp
'As soon as I'd given it to him, I said, 'You need to flush it away'. He told me had.'
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But the images were found, and in 2022 Rachel was convicted of neglecting her duties, got a suspended sentence and community service — and was fired.
She insists: 'There had been no storeroom romp.'
But at her trial, the judge said 'CCTV footage shows the two of you together and you were in a room privately, together. Intimacy must have taken place.'
Another ex-officer, called Moses, reveals goings-on such as this are common.
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What lags are smuggling in
He says: 'Female prison officers get a lot of attention from prisoners, it's bound to happen.
'If they are not strong-minded they get drawn in.
'If they are smart and keep their mouth shut it can go on for a long time.
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'But when it moves to exploitation — getting the officer to bring in phones, [synthetic cannabis substitutes] spice and black mamba, all the illegal substances, it becomes too big to manage.
'From the prisoners' perspective it's just business.
'He's trying to bring in illicit items, and sell them.'
But former prisoner Beatrice, who did time for money laundering, says guards also make moves on inmates.
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While the vast majority of prison staff are honest, we are catching more of the small minority who break the rules, through our Counter-Corruption Unit
A Prison Service spokesman
She reveals: 'An officer would regularly comment on my appearance.
'He suggested he would want to come in my cell or meet up when I was released.
'He would say things like, 'I'm all yours'.
'Other members of staff recognised his behaviour was creepy but if you make a complaint the staff are going to protect each other.
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'I heard other allegations that officers had relationships with women on the drug-addiction wing, it's common knowledge that this happens all the time.'
A Prison Service spokesman said: 'While the vast majority of prison staff are honest, we are catching more of the small minority who break the rules, through our Counter-Corruption Unit.
'Where officers fall below our high standards, we take robust action.'
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Prisoners are paying guards up to £500 to smuggle in KFC
Credit: Getty
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Irish Times
a minute ago
- Irish Times
My Saxophone Saved My Life by Des Lee and The Killing of the Reavey Brothers by Eugene Reavey: Angry accounts of atrocities and the continuing search for answers
My Saxophone Saved My Life Author : Des Lee ISBN-13 : 9781786052551 Publisher : Red Stripe Press Guideline Price : €19.99 The Killing of the Reavey Brothers 978- Author : Eugene Reavey ISBN-13 : 1917453981 Publisher : Mercier Press Guideline Price : €19.99 In his introduction to Des Lee's book, which tells the story of the 1975 Miami Showband massacre and his quest since for justice, Fr Brian D'Arcy says that few under 50 will recognise the picture of the island of Ireland it paints. The same could be said of Eugene Reavey's book recounting the brutal killings of his three brothers six months later and the horror of living in a place where death stalked the land. The books, both co-authored by journalist Ken Murray, are filled with anger at the obstacles put in their way by the British authorities as they have fought to discover the truth of what happened half a century ago. In his book, Reavey tells the story of a short drive with Jon Boutcher, now chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), along the Kingsmill Road in south Armagh shortly after the Englishman was appointed in 2016 to lead a new investigation into old Troubles killings. Reavey drove Boutcher, whose escort followed behind. In just two miles, there were memorials to 17 people – including his brothers and the 11 Protestants killed in the Kingsmill massacre 24 hours later. [ Kingsmill massacre report: Watchdog identifies series of failings in investigation Opens in new window ] From there, the two drove just two miles to the Mitchell farmhouse in Glenanne, from where a loyalist death-squad operated, one that included members of the Ulster Defence Regiment and the Royal Ulster Constabulary. [ Miami Showband massacre: 'I heard my platform shoes click against each other. I still had both legs' Opens in new window ] Boutcher was 'amazed' that so many blatantly sectarian killings had taken place so close together. 'What really shocked him was the failure of the RUC to properly investigate them,' writes Reavey. Rightly so. Given the false charges of IRA membership laid at the door of his dead brothers, and the late Rev Ian Paisley 's equally false allegation that Eugene had been involved in the Kingsmill massacre, his anger is hardly surprising. In Reavey's narrative, SAS soldier Robert Nairac was everywhere – the instigator of the Dublin/Monaghan bombings, the Miami Showband massacre, the Reavey killings, the O'Dowd murders 15 minutes later near Lurgan, and others. The charges against Nairac, later killed by the IRA, are not, however, proven by Lee, even if the collusion involving RUC officers, the UDR and the regular British army in the murders of Catholics in the 1970s went high up the ranks. [ Who was Robert Nairac and what happened to him? Opens in new window ] Equally, his insistence that he has found proof that the killings of his brothers and the Kingsmill massacre were orchestrated by the British military to provoke an outright civil war is questionable. His book lays great stress on a report written by a British army major with 3rd Infantry Brigade the day after the Reavey brothers were shot. The report was unearthed in the British National Archives in Kew. 'With the acute alarm that has been caused by the KINGSMILLS murders of 5 Jan '76, the chances of wholesale indiscriminate slaughter of Catholics must re-emerge,' the note declares. 'When I read the note,' writes Reavey, 'I was shocked.' The document clearly states, he goes on, that the targeting of Catholics must be closely controlled and directed by UVF leaders to provoke a civil war. However, a fuller reading of the report, whether it be right or wrong, makes clear that it is an assessment of the UVF's actions, rather than an outline of a strategy the British were directing, using the UVF as its tool. Again, it may be true, but it is not proven. The tenor of Lee's book contains anger, too, but it is more controlled. Few of those who heard early morning radio headlines on Thursday, July 31st, 1975, will forget the horror felt when word broke of the attack on the showband. For both, the past is not the past, it remains the present: 'For many people, 1975 is a long time ago, but every other day, the horrors of that night come back to haunt me and remind me repeatedly of how lucky I am to have made it this far.' In April this year, hundreds marched in Moygashel, Co Tyrone to honour Wesley Somerville, one of two UVF men killed when a bomb they were putting under a seat in the van exploded prematurely. The plan had been that the bomb would explode later, fuelling charges that the showband and the many others crossing the Border regularly were involved in transporting weaponry for the IRA. Neither author expects that the full story will ever be released, though both believe that the collusion unearthed already between the UVF and the British military barely scratches the surface. For their sakes, one must hope they will get the answers they seek.
The Irish Sun
17 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
My dad Ian Huntley sends me dark letters from jail & haunts every second of my life – I can't bear looking in the mirror
Daughter of Soham killer reveals how she is even terrified of meeting strangers due to their probing questions - and why she has written to him one last time DEVIL'S DAUGHTER My dad Ian Huntley sends me dark letters from jail & haunts every second of my life – I can't bear looking in the mirror LOOKING in the mirror each morning, Samantha Bryan can barely stand it as she sees the eyes of a murderer staring back. As the traumatised daughter of Soham killer Ian Huntley, just getting through each day is a struggle as she discovers dark new details about her dad and receives twisted letters from him in jail. 8 Samantha Bryan is the daughter of killer Ian Huntley Credit: Glen Minikin 8 Evil Huntley has written to Samantha from his cell Credit: Rex Features 8 The sicko murdered 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002 Credit: Collect Desperate for answers over what drove the former school caretaker to kill 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002, Samantha, 28, sent her father a letter over a year ago asking to meet him. Out of the blue, months later, in neat, black biro he wrote back, heartlessly accusing her of "insincere motives", adding: 'You are still my daughter for whom I have much love. With Love, Ian'. 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'Every time I look in the mirror I see how much I look like him. I have his eyes. 8 Huntley worked as a caretaker in the school both girls attended Credit: Alamy 8 The murderer has written chilling letters to his daughter Credit: Supplied 'Someone put up a photo of me next to his online and that's when I realised the similarities. 'People often say to me: 'I know your face from somewhere'. 'My heart sinks when they do, as I know they are referring to him, but they just can't place it. I just say: 'No we haven't met before' but so often they look puzzled. 'I think I have other traits from that side of the family as I'm also the only one in my family that has asthma. It's so hard to be the child of what everyone says is a monster... I know I'm a good person but at night that haunts me 'I found an article talking about his medical history online as I wanted to see if there was anything I should be worried about and I read that he has asthma too. 'That took me to a dark place. 'I had periods of despair where I have struggled with the fact of who my biological father is and that the only thing I know about him is what I've read - and what my mum has told me and that is that he's a monster.' Mum's suffering Samantha's mother Katie first met Huntley when she was a 15-year-old schoolgirl, running away from home to live with him against her parents' wishes. Their relationship descended into violence and he subjected her to humiliation - including making her eat cat food - and rape, before Samantha was born. Katie left him for good when she was pregnant with Samantha and has always told her daughter that becoming pregnant saved her from his abuse. 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Irish Post
2 days ago
- Irish Post
Who owns the legacy of the Troubles?
MY FRIEND Lyra McKee died from a gunshot wound and became a symbol of a post-Troubles generation. She was a young lesbian and a freelance journalist starting to establish a reputation. One night in April 2019 she stood watching a riot in Derry. Dissident republicans who had rejected the peace deal of 1998 were throwing stones and petrol bombs at police officers who had come into the Creggan estate to make arrests. Riots of this kind were common during the period of the Troubles, generated by both republican and loyalist communities, often with the police as the main target. I watched many riots as a young journalist as Lyra did that night, standing behind police or army lines or occasionally on the sidelines for a clearer view, depending on how safe I felt there. On that night in Derry a man came forward with a pistol and fired at the police. One of his bullets struck Lyra in the head. She then became a symbol of change because this was not supposed to happen. The violence was meant to be behind us. Most of those who had led the violence of the past agreed on that. And Lyra was seen as part of a post conflict generation. She would have been watching that riot perhaps because she had never or rarely seen such a thing. She would have regarded it as a throwback to an awful time. British prime Minister Theresa May applauds with Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar and mourners as the hearse leaves the church after the funeral of murdered journalist Lyra McKee at St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast (Pic: Rolling News) Her symbolic importance was such that her funeral at St Anne's cathedral in Belfast was attended by the then Prime Minister Theresa May and several dignitaries including the Northern Irish First Minister, Arlene Foster. Her writings were republished, and one particular piece was seen as speaking for her whole generation. As a lesbian writing to her younger self she had said: 'It won't always be like this. It's going to get better.' The tragic irony of how she had died was that it seemed to affirm that the awfulness continued despite her hopes and confidence. And the starkness of that seemed to reinforce a determination that her vision would be fulfilled, that her death could not be pointless, that there had to be a Northern Ireland free of violence and prejudice in which a new generation had put the past behind them. Young people today in Northern Ireland seem divided between those who regard themselves as a fruitful new generation untainted by the past and those who retain the anger and suffer inherited trauma. Both often seem naive to me, as inevitably young people will when trying to respond to events that took place before they were born. Some say they are not like the generation of their parents which made a mess of things. Some carry grief for what their families suffered and struggle to understand a society that has moved on. Take Liadan Ní Chuinn who has just published an extraordinary collection of short stories that the critics are raving about. Liadan is a pseudonym and there is no public disclosure over who she or he is. The name is female. The Irish Times has said of Every One Still Here that it deserves to be considered 'among the best Irish books of the 21st century'. That's one hell of an endorsement. The stories are largely about generational trauma, featuring young characters who agonise over the legacy of the Troubles and relate the deaths of older relations to the stress and violence of those days. The book is brilliantly written. An energetic imagination relates characters and situations vividly and movingly. There is a coherent and authentic young voice throughout. In the closing story a character Rowan confronts an older person, Shane who doesn't want to dwell on the past and tells him he'll get over it. Rowan is furious and the older character is saying that the past is behind us and best left there. This presents us with a counter to the image of Lyra McKee who is taken to symbolise the generation that has moved on. There can be no question that Liadan is a major artist, an impressively evocative writer but there is naïveté and warped perspective here too. That last story ends the book with a passionate litany of many of those who were killed by British soldiers during the Troubles, many of the soldiers being defended by their own officers and by government ministers; few were charged and convicted of murder. The scandal of murders by soldiers is well recorded yet few have ever been held accountable. But Ní Chuinn's vision of the cause of conflict presents the British army as the main source of grief. And this book is not alone in thinking like that. The First Minister, Michelle O'Neill, who has said that there was no alternative to the IRA campaign, has recently spoken of how she and those around her were moved by the horror of young men being killed by soldiers. That conviction that the primary evil, the most damnable source of grief and grievance was the British army may be reality for some but what is missing here is context. Most of the killing was done by the IRA and by loyalist paramilitary groups. How can that simply be forgotten or discounted as irrelevant? There is danger in that blindness for that simplistic account of our past is what drives the dissident republicans still, the ones who couldn't compromise for peace, the ones who shot Lyra McKee. See More: Lyra McKee, Northern Ireland, Troubles
