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A former prison officer has been jailed after she was caught on her own body-worn video camera performing a sex act on an inmate.
Rebecca Pinckard, 46, engaged in an “intimate encounter” with serving prisoner Erion Nakdi, 42, inside a store cupboard at HMP Highpoint in Suffolk, Cambridge Crown Court heard.
The mother, from Six Mile Bottom, Cambridgeshire, had previously sent a Moonpig card to the Albanian national, who is serving a 16-year sentence for drug offences.
Pinckard admitted misconduct in a public office at an earlier hearing and was sentenced on Friday to 32 weeks in prison.
Prosecutor Gavin Burrell told the court that Pinckard was captured performing a sex act on Nakdi in two video clips, filmed five minutes apart on her own body-worn camera on 5 July 2024.
The footage came to light when another officer, reviewing body-worn camera evidence, discovered the clips.
Judge Anthony Cartin remarked that Pinckard’s offending was “only discovered because of a clumsy mistake,” adding: “An officer gathering evidence found evidence from your camera.” He noted that her camera “had been activated during the intimate encounter.”
Judge Cartin further stated: “The offence wasn’t a one-off – it went on for a number of months and the card was sent.” In jailing Pinckard, he concluded that her “conduct diminishes the public confidence in the criminal justice system.”
Mr Burrell also revealed that Pinckard had sent Nakdi a Moonpig card on 10 April 2024. Sexual videos of Nakdi in his prison cell were recovered from Pinckard’s mobile phone, which were accepted to have been filmed in prison and then sent via social media messaging.
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Nakdi was given an additional 10-month sentence, imposed at Luton Crown Court in 2022 (Nick Ansell/PA) (PA Archive)
The phone used to film these videos has never been recovered, and the judge noted Pinckard did not report receiving them to authorities.
Nakdi, who appeared in court via video link, admitted at an earlier hearing to the unauthorised possession of a mobile phone in prison between 2 and 6 July 2024.
He was sentenced to an additional 10 months, to run consecutively to his existing 16-year and three-month sentence for conspiracy to supply class A drugs, imposed at Luton Crown Court in 2022.
Rory Keene, representing Nakdi, described the unauthorised device as a “pool phone” and characterised the situation as a “tragic case of an emotional attraction between two people,” referring to the Moonpig card as a “loving card.”
Juliet Donovan, mitigating for Pinckard, called it a “moment of madness” and insisted it was “not a relationship.”
She explained that Pinckard had recently ended a “19-year relationship” and her “home life at the time… was particularly difficult.”
Ms Donovan added that Pinckard “never gave (Nakdi) her mobile phone number so there’s no question of repeated text messages,” and sent the Moonpig card because Nakdi “explained he had been having problems with his girlfriend,” and Pinckard wanted “to try to cheer him up.”
The court heard Pinckard had received a warning in October 2023 for being “overfamiliar” with prisoners.
Ms Donovan suggested Pinckard’s “giving of cakes and sweets” was her “naively and stupidly trying to make the lives of prisoners somewhat better.”
Pinckard wiped tears from her eyes during Friday’s sentencing and appeared tearful as she was led to the cells.