{"id":617655,"date":"2026-06-02T20:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/617655\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T20:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T20:44:08","slug":"corrupt-liverpool-prison-worker-jailed-for-smuggling-drugs-and-sending-sex-texts-to-inmates-prisons-and-probation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/617655\/","title":{"rendered":"Corrupt Liverpool prison worker jailed for smuggling drugs and sending sex texts to inmates | Prisons and probation"},"content":{"rendered":"

A corrupt prison watchdog boss who billed herself \u201cthe prisoners\u2019 Deliveroo\u201d has been jailed for five years after admitting sending sexual messages to a killer inmate and smuggling drugs.<\/p>\n

Helen Spree, 63, was the head of the independent monitoring board (IMB) for HMP Liverpool<\/a> when she engaged in illicit chats with prisoners over a 20-month period. Spree was said to have become besotted with Dylan Westall, 35, who was serving a life sentence for manslaughter for shooting a teenager in the head.<\/p>\n

Police who searched her home in August 2021 found two custom-made pillows with Westall\u2019s face and a gun embossed on them, Liverpool crown court heard. She also had a tattoo on her chest of a bumblebee holding a love heart, with the word \u201cMasterpiece\u201d underneath \u2013 a name used for her by Westall in a thank-you card discovered by officers.<\/p>\n

Spree was on Tuesday jailed for five years and three months after pleading guilty to misconduct in a public office, conspiracy to supply cannabis and conspiracy to convey prohibited items into prison.<\/p>\n

A card from Helen Spree to Dylan Westall. Photograph: NWROCU\/PA<\/p>\n

Her suspension by the prisons watchdog was first revealed<\/a> by the Guardian in October 2021. The court heard that Spree had enjoyed a successful career as a sales director for a global firm and started volunteering in 2017 as a member of an IMB, which scrutinises conditions in prisons in England and Wales.<\/p>\n

She was appointed head of HMP Liverpool\u2019s IMB in January 2021, allowing her unsupervised access to the category B prison and her own set of keys.<\/p>\n

The court heard that Spree also sent explicit messages to two other prisoners and disclosed details of cell searches, prisoner officer deployments and told them when arrests were to take place. She was found to have transferred \u00a3100 to Westall and smuggled in cannabis, mobile phones, sim cards and phone chargers. In one message she referred to herself \u201cas the prisoner\u2019s version of Deliveroo\u201d, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Spree, who had no previous convictions, denied engaging in any direct physical sexual activity with the prisoners.<\/p>\n

Judge Flewitt KC said he had no doubt that she saw her role at the IMB as an opportunity to be a force for good. However, he said: \u201cYou allowed yourself to be used to bring in cannabis and other prohibited items for their benefit and personal use.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were deliberate offences which required a high level of planning and sophistication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flewitt said she was \u201cto some extent manipulated\u201d by the prisoners \u201cwho clearly saw you as a person who could be turned to their advantage\u201d despite being an intelligent woman in a senior position of authority.<\/p>\n

He accepted she was \u201csusceptible\u201d to this manipulation after her barrister, Arthur Gibson, told the court she had hid a personal life of \u201cabuse and trauma\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gibson said that by 2017 she had become \u201cseriously damaged mentally by her dealings with men and towards them had very low self-esteem\u201d and that she was easily susceptible to \u201cbeing flattered and treated as a confidante\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the discovery of the pillows at her house was something \u201cone would expect with a teenager\u2019s first love\u201d and showed how much she had become \u201cemotionally involved\u201d.<\/p>\n

Westall received a 12-month sentence after admitting plotting to smuggle drugs and other items into HMP Liverpool, a term he will serve in addition to his 22-year life sentence, handed down in 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A corrupt prison watchdog boss who billed herself \u201cthe prisoners\u2019 Deliveroo\u201d has been jailed for five years after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-617655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}