Isabelle Dale sent inmate Shahid Sharif “steamy” love letters, which were sometimes laced with ‘Spice’
Isabelle Dale arriving at Southwark Crown Court, London(Image: PA Wire)
A prison officer had sex with an inmate in a jail prayer room and sent him love letters laced with drugs. Isabelle Dale, 23, romped with convicted robber Shahid Sharif, 33, in the worship area at HMP Coldingley in Surrey, where she worked.
The pair were seen emerging from the prayer room together, with Dale hastily readjusting her belt. The prison officer was engaged in a passionate relationship with Sharif, had his nickname “Sneaks” tattooed behind her neck, and referred to herself as “Miss Sneaky”, The Mirror reports.
Southwark Crown Court heard how Dale bought her own £3,000 engagement ring, and wrote love letters to Sharif – who was three years into a 12-year sentence – describing her dreams of their life together on the outside.
At the same time, she was involved in another sexual relationship with a second jailhouse lover, Connor Money, 28. Money was serving nine years for killing his best friend in a car crash while escaping police in a 147mph motorway chase near Medway, Kent.
Sharif was transferred to HMP Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent after the prayer room session. But the romance continued in the form of love letters, some of which were laced with synthetic cannabis or “Spice”.
Dale also operated Sharif’s drug-dealing Snapchat account to source the drug through associate Lilea Sallis, 27. The prison officer told the court she felt “privileged” to have Sharif in her life, but denied ever having sex with him in jail or smuggling the drugs.
However, she was found guilty of two counts of misconduct in a public office and conspiracy to convey a “List A” prohibited article into prison. She burst into tears as the verdicts were announced after the eight day trial.
Sharif earlier admitted conspiring with Dale, Sallis, and others to convey drugs into prison. Sallis denied conspiracy to convey a “List A” prohibited article into prison.
Judge Chris Hehir granted Dale and Sallis unconditional bail ahead of sentence on a date to be fixed in January. But he warned them both: “You have been convicted of very grave offences indeed. I can see no alternative to a substantial custodial sentence.”
The judge said he will set a sentence date later and warned the pair: “Prepare emotionally and physically to go to prison that day.”
During the case, prosecutor Kieran Brand said: “On 19 July 2022, Miss Dale and Mr Sharif were seen to enter the multi faith room located off a wing within the prison together. They remained there for four minutes while two inmates appeared to act as lookouts. They both emerged from the room together and walked back towards the wing, with Miss Dale appearing to readjust her belt area on the right-hand side of her hip.
“The multi faith room is not covered by CCTV: the prosecution say it is clear they went in there for some form of sexual activity.”
Isabelle Dale arriving at Southwark Crown Court, London(Image: PA Wire)
Sharif was transferred to HMP Swaleside after the encounter and Dale visited him on three separate occasions between September and October 2022. They were caught on CCTV a social visit on September 27 passionately kissing and hugging.
“Dale sent Sharif flirty images via the ’email a prisoner system’ and transferred £100 to his bank account. A series of steamy love letters, often accompanied by ‘provocative’ pictures of Dale, were recovered from Sharif’s cell.”
In one message, Dale wrote: “I literally worship the ground you walk on, you are my best friend, my motivation, the reason I keep fighting”. She said Sharif’s music was “phenomenal” and praised his ability to “create all those bars in such a short period of time”.
She wrote: “You are so talented and I am honoured to be the girl that gets to stand by your side. I will do anything I can to help you and that’s because the love runs deep. Wearing your promise ring, having you tattooed on me for life are all things I take ownership in – there is nothing I feel more proud of than being known as your girl.”
Dale said she would “take a bullet” for Sharif and wrote extensively about what their life would be like together following his eventual release.
She told him: “If there is one thing I can promise you, with hand held on my heart, is that I will be stood at those gates when you walk out and – as you told me – stepping into a Lamborghini.
“I’m so excited for our future together, never change, you are beyond perfect: our energy matches and I like that. We are like two peas in the pod and I love it.”
Dale was arrested on November 1, 2022 on her last visit to Sharif at Swaleside. She told police she believed that he was going to propose to her on that visit.
In the boot of her car, officers found the equipment to smuggle Spice into jail including a packet of carbon paper used to prevent the drug being detected by prison X-ray machines. In one call phone call, Sharif told Dale there was “big bread” to be made selling Spice in prison, boasting that he could make “like 16 bills off an envelope”.
He warned the envelopes “can’t look bait”, telling Dale: “They can’t be stained or nothing, they gotta look diligent.”
His instructions included: “You got the envelope yeah. See where you put the letter inside? You don’t touch that You don’t need to do it inside there… you dip the front and then dip the bak.”
Sharif and Dale later discussed her going to Brighton to meet Sallis and collect Spice soaked envelopes for him to sell in prison.
When she was arrested, police found evidence of her relationship with Money in a series of text messages. In one Money asked “when will I get to feel them sexy lips” and Dale replied: “When you know you want me and only me lol xx.” Dale also messaged at least two other prisoners on their mobile phones.
Dale joined the prison service on September 29, 2021, but told the court she felt she never fitted in with her colleagues who would mock her extensive tattoos. She said she sought solace in the affection of the inmates.
She said: “I bought the ring as I was instructed to by Mr Sharif to prove my loyalty to him. He threatened to stab me. He told me he hated me and wanted me to die.”
She said Sharif had confessed to sexual encounters with other prison officers in the past. Dale said: “He disclosed to me that at HMP Coldingley he had been given oral sex by a previous prison officer.”
She said they did not have a physical relationship but regularly had “phone sex” and she said she did not know it was illegal to have a mobile in jail.
She said: “Mr Sharif would degrade me a lot about my body size and my bum size. He would tell me I wasn’t good enough for him. He said that to be with someone as good as him I would have to make serious permanent changes to myself.”
She said she had buttock fillers on her boyfriend’s instructions; the surgery went wrong and she developed septic abscesses in her hips and back. When she was in hospital, she said she was called “about a hundred times” by Sharif and his relatives.
She also started receiving messages from Money, but said she did not feel comfortable reporting the fact he had a phone to the prison authorities.
Dale said that Money had tried to kiss her, but “I didn’t want to kiss so I stepped back”, and that Money had called her “a f****** weirdo.”
Later in a message she told him that he was “perfect”. She claimed: “I didn’t want him to feel rejected or to become angry. Just like every prisoner you don’t know what he’s potentially capable of. He threatened to stab me. He told me he hated me and wanted me to die.”
Dale, of Portsmouth, denied two counts of misconduct in a public office and conspiracy to convey a “List A” prohibited article into prison. Sallis, of East Sussex, denied conspiracy to convey a ‘List A’ prohibited article into prison.