UPDATE: |They were supposed to be guarding murderers, armed robbers and gangsters – but ended up falling for them instead News

Last month it was revealed 40 female prison officers have been sacked in the last four years over illicit relationships with male inmates

One accepted a £12,000 Mercedes from an organised crime kingpin. Another smuggled drugs into Strangeways for her convicted killer lover.

They are the female prison officers caught having relationships with the inmates they were supposed to be guarding. And their lovers include murderers, armed robbers and gangsters.

Last month it was revealed 40 female prison officers have been fired in the last four years after entering illicit relationships with male inmates. Figures revealed by the Mirror suggested the number of ‘inappropriate’ relationships between women prison officers and inmates has trebled in recent years.

Here we take a look at the screws who faced the ultimate fall from grace after becoming involved with criminals behind bars…

Kerri Pegg

Former prison governor Kerri Pegg faces jail after she embarked on a relationship with a major organised crime boss. Pegg described in court as ‘petite, blonde and bubbly’, had been fast-tracked into the prison service, quickly climbing the career ladder from graduate entrant to prison governor in six years.

But the 42-year-old’s decision to become ’emotionally and personally’ involved with Anthony Saunderson, who for a time had been one of Britain’s most wanted fugitives and was serving 10 years for drugs offences, proved to be her downfall. Their fling was uncovered when police – having had intelligence – raided Pegg’s home and found a burner phone, a toothbrush and a pair of men’s flip-flops. The latter two items were found to have Saunderson’s DNA on them.

Officers also discovered the Mercedes C class outside Pegg’s home in Up Holland, near Wigan, which Saunderson had bought her for £12,000. Despite her tearful denials in the witness box she had ever been in a relationship with Saunderson, a jury took less than three hours to convict Pegg, originally of Bramhall in Stockport and the former governor at HMP Kirkham in Lancs, of two counts of misconduct in a public office and one count of possession of criminal property following a three-week trial.

She will be sentenced at a later date, with Judge Graham Knowles telling her a prison term was ‘inevitable’.

Abigail Laidlaw

Strangeways prison officer Abigail Laidlaw was in a relationship with a convicted murderer and smuggled drugs behind bars for her locked-up lover. Police said messages recovered on Laidlaw’s mobile phone after her arrest ‘clearly indicated’ she was in an ‘intimate relationship’ with Troy Beckford, who was jailed for life in 2016 for the murder of Kieran McGrath.

The relationship, said detectives, included ‘daily kissing whilst she was at work’ at HMP Manchester. One message she sent him read: “You’ve got what you want really, drugs brought in for you every day.”

In March this year Laidlaw, 28, of East Street, Rossendale, Lancashire, was jailed for five years and three months after pleading guilty to misconduct in a public office, two counts of conspiracy to convey a prohibited article into prison and possession of criminal property.

Niamh Lloyd

Niamh Lloyd met Lee Makin while she was working as a prison officer at Forest Bank jail in Salford. He was serving a six-year sentence for burglary.

Manchester Crown Court was told the pair became close after Lloyd, 22, was allegedly sexually assaulted at the prison. Her lawyer said Makin, 40, was ‘the only person who did show her any empathy or any kind of support’. Their relationship continued after Makin was later transferred to HMP Berwyn in Wrexham.

The pair were regularly in touch by phone, engaging in sexual conversations, as well as in letters addressed to ‘Big Lee’. At one point, she told Makin she was with him ‘for the thrill’, adding: “I don’t like doing what I’m told.”

During their chats, Lloyd, who previously worked as a civilian assistant for Greater Manchester Police, also identified a prisoner at Forest Bank as a paedophile, disclosed ‘operational information’ to Makin about the prison and burnt documents in a bid to destroy evidence after being arrested.

Last month Lloyd, of Coppice Drive, Wigan, was jailed for a year after she pleaded guilty to two counts of misconduct in a public office. Makin, of Edgewood, Shevington, Wigan, was also jailed for a year after he pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally encouraging or assisting the offence of misconduct in a public office.

Claire Lloyd

Strangeways prison guard Claire Lloyd was jailed after engaging in a ‘romantic relationship’ with armed robber Andrew Hall who she described as her ‘soulmate’.

Prosecutors accepted that their relationship did not become sexual, but said the pair would declare their love for each other. The couple exchanged hundreds of phone calls and text messages, with some calls lasting up to two hours.

Lloyd also turned a blind eye to the fact that Hall was using an illicit phone in jail. The 47-year-old, of Clapgates Crescent, Warrington, pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office in August last year and was jailed for eight months.

Joanne Hunter

Joanne Hunter started an inappropriate relationship with an inmate and smuggled cannabis into Forest Bank jail in Salford. The prison officer brought the drug into the jail hidden in a juice carton and a Red Bull can.

She handed over the packages to a ‘big player’ inmate in the prison before they were passed on to Connor Willis, who she ‘thought was in love with her’. Hunter, then 28, from Bury, had begun a relationship with Willis, kissing him and sending him explicit pictures of herself, but denied that it ever became sexual.

She also admitted sharing ‘flirty banter’ with another inmate. Prison authorities became aware of Hunter’s crimes and she confessed after being confronted.

Hunter, of Holbeach Close, Bury, was jailed for three years after she pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office and conspiring to convey list A articles into a prison.

Katie Evans

Former prison officer Katie Evans was jailed for 21 months after boasting that she had performed a sex act on an inmate. The judge who sentenced her said she had been ‘manipulated by an experienced criminal’.

Evans, 26, wept in the dock at Sheffield Crown Court as a judge described how she was ‘corrupted’ not long after she started work at Doncaster Prison in South Yorkshire when she was 21. Judge Jeremy Richardson KC said that as well as having an intimate relationship with the prisoner, Daniel Brownley, Evans had more than 140 phone calls with him, and gave him information the prison held on him.

The judge heard Evans, of Hatfield, Doncaster, had boasted to an ex-prison officer that she had performed oral sex on the inmate and the defendant referred to herself as ‘your queen’ when talking to Brownley. She admitted a charge of misconduct in a public office.