A judge said ‘all sentencing options’ were open
Megan Breen could face prison(Image: Wales News Service)
A prison officer is facing a possible jail sentence after she admitted to a fling with an inmate.
Megan Breen admitted having an inappropriate relationship while working at two prisons in South Wales.
The 23-year-old is said to have had an illicit affair with an inmate while working at category C jail HMP Usk and open prison HMP Prescoed, both in Gwent.
She initially denied the relationship with the unnamed prisoner, the Mirror reports.
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Court documents state that the relationship took place between February and May 2022.
“While acting as a public officer, namely a prison officer, wilfully and without reasonable excuse or justification misconducted yourself in a way which amounted to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder by having a relationship with a prisoner,” the charge states.
Megan Breen was told ‘all sentencing options’ remain open(Image: Wales News Service)
Breen, of Newport, Gwent, was bailed but warned she could face jail when she returns to court for sentence.
Judge Carl Harrison ordered a pre-sentence report but told her ‘all sentencing options’ remain open.
Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard a second allegation of illegally accessing a computer will not be proceeded with.
Category C prison Usk houses 280 inmates and is managed jointly with open prison HMP Prescoed which is three miles away and houses offenders serving the final term of their sentences before being released.
According to the Ministry of Justice, 19 members of prison staff were charged with misconduct in public office between 2023 and 2024 – the highest number of lock-up liaisons in the past 10 years.
In May, Tracy Boateng, 27, was jailed after admitting misconduct in a public office through engaging in an inappropriate relationship with Vincent Ojo at HMP Pentonville between February 25 and April 19 last year.
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She was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court to 12 months imprisonment suspended for 24 months.
In March, mother-of-one Katie Evans, 26, was jailed for 21 months by a judge who said she had been ‘manipulated by an experienced criminal’.
As well as starting an intimate relationship with the prisoner, Daniel Brownley, Evans had more than 140 phone calls with him, moved money around bank accounts for him, and supplied him with information the prison held on him, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC said.
And earlier this year, former HMP Wandsworth prison officer Linda De Sousa Abreu, 30, was jailed for 15 months after having sex with an inmate in a cell. Footage was widely shared on social media.