A prison guard has claimed that sordid trysts between inmates and staff are ‘commonplace’ in Australian jails.
The anonymous whistle-blower said she once saw a guard sitting on top of a naked prisoner with her skirt up while having sex with him in a jail cell.
Another one of her former colleagues gave birth to a convicted killer’s children after he seduced her in a quiet area of a prison wing, she said.
A prison guard has claimed that sordid trysts between inmates and staff are ‘commonplace’ in Australian jails. Pictured: The guard’s prison pass
The anonymous whistle-blower (muzzed) said she once saw a guard sitting on top of a naked prisoner with her skirt up and having sex with him in a cell
The guard told 9News: ‘It’s commonplace for female officers to have sex with inmates.
‘I saw a female prison officer with her skirt up around her waist with no underwear on top of an inmate with no clothes on.’
That incident was in 2009. Asked if she had seen other guards having sex with inmates, she replied: ‘Yes, I had seen another female prison officer in a secluded area of a wing in the middle of the day having sex with an inmate as well.’
Former corrections officer, Kerryn Pholi (pictured) insisted that banning women from male prisons is not the answer
The guard said these acts were not reported because of a culture of silence.
She also said it was common for guards to have sex with each other inside jail at work.
It comes after two female guards were this week accused of romping with convicted killers.
One former corrections officer, Kerryn Pholi, on Thursday insisted that banning women from male prisons is not the answer because a ‘professional and authoritative female presence’ is beneficial to the convicts’ rehabilitation.
She also said the vast majority of women guards wouldn’t dream of having sex with ‘a guy who doesn’t have a job, doesn’t even have his own bedroom, and who needs 24-hour supervision.’
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, she said she was mystified by how sex with an inmate even works.
‘Whatever quick grope these people could manage out of view of the cameras, the staff and other prisoners, it would hardly be a quality experience,’ she wrote.
Corrective Service Commissioner Peter Severin wants to throw officers who cavort with inmates behind bars and consider forcing inmates to take anti-libido drugs.
It’s currently not illegal for corrections staff to have sex with inmates, although it is a breach of their code of conduct.
Sordid: Demmi Zeschke (pictured) allegedly had steamy sex sessions with drink-drive double killer Jarad Smith in Long Bay Correctional Centre, south-east Sydney
Smith (pictured), now on day release until his parole in September 2019, was drunk and high on cocaine and MDMA when he ran over Katherine Pracy and her boyfriend Gary Kelly in December 2014
‘If I had my way I would make it an offence punishable by imprisonment,’ Mr Severin told The Daily Telegraph.
Hinting at anti-libido drugs, he added: ‘I want to do anything that will stop inappropriate behaviour from happening.
‘If there are medically based options would I say no? No I wouldn’t, no I wouldn’t because I want to stop this behaviour from happening.’
Corrections Minister David Elliott said it was his mission to make sure guards who have relationships with inmates can never work in government.
‘I want their reputation so badly tarnished they can never work for the state government again,’ he said, adding that he wants to criminalise sex with prisoners.
He has ordered an investigation into alleged prisoner-staff relationships over the past 10 years.
Female prison guard Amy Connors (pictured) is alleged to have had sex with cop killer Sione Penisini
Convicted cop killer Sione Pensini (right) and prison guard Amy Connors were under surveillance for more than a month before the alleged sexual liaison was uncovered
Guard Demmi Zeschke was accused of having steamy sex sessions with drink-drive double killer Jarad Smith, 23, in Long Bay Correctional Centre, south-east Sydney.
She is said to have swapped shifts with colleagues to work at night when the pair could sneak to the gym for sordid trysts.
The couple’s cunning arrangement came to a sudden end when other guards allegedly caught them in the act before Zeschke resigned.
Smith, now on day release until his parole in September 2019, was drunk and high on cocaine and MDMA when he ran over Katherine Pracy and her boyfriend Gary Kelly in December 2014.
The couple’s families – already dismayed at Smith’s ‘lenient’ four-year sentence – are furious that he was allowed to have sex behind bars.
‘He probably has got it easier than we have,’ Ms Pracy’s sister Louise Miller told 9 News.
Corrective Service Commissioner Peter Severin is pushing for dramatic reforms after two female guards were this week accused of romping with convicted killers
‘Incarceration is supposed to take away all those privileges but some of the prisoners are still getting that privilege,’ brother-in-law Duncan Miller said.
On his radio show on Wednesday, 2GB host Ryan Hadley called prisons ‘hotbeds’ for illicit sexual relationships.
It comes after convicted cop killer Sione Penisini was caught having a sexual relationship with a guard in Kempsey maximum-security prison in New South Wales.
In 2015, officer Jody Marson (pictured), 33, was sacked for having an ‘improper relationship’ with Thomas Kelly’s killer
Prison officer Amy Connors, a married mother-of-two, was reported to be pregnant with Penisini’s child, but her family has denied those claims, according to radio station 2GB.
Penisini was sentenced to 36 years jail in 2002, after being convicted of murdering police officer Glenn McEnally.
Corrective Services staff reportedly had Connors and Penisini under surveillance for a month before they swooped, suspending the guard from duty, Nine News reported.
Penisini has since been moved to Goulburn Supermax jail, home to Australia’s most hardened criminals, after allegedly assaulting a fellow prisoner in recent weeks.
Penisini allegedly ‘groomed’ Connors by pushing her into weightloss surgery.
Police Association president Tony King slammed Mr Elliot and Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin after the allegations were made public.
‘If Elliott and Severin were doing their jobs, every cop killer would be rotting away in Supermax, it’s a direct slap in the face of every officer, all of us who have worn the blue shirt,’ he said on Tuesday.
Connors reportedly attempted to tender her resignation after being suspended on Friday but it was denied because Correction Services wish to complete their investigations first.
Kieran Loveridge (left), was convicted of killing Thomas Kelly in an unprovoked attack in Sydney’s Kings Cross in 2012
Mr Elliot is set to visit the Kempsey jail in the coming week and said he had spoken to Constable McEnally’s mother and expressed his sincerest apologies that this could happen.
‘It is clear this inmate should never have been alone with a junior female officer. I am keen to see what options we could implement to ensure this is never allowed to happen again,’ he said.
In 2015, correctional officer Jody Marson, 33, was sacked for having an ‘improper relationship’ with Kieran Loveridge, who was convicted of killing Thomas Kelly in an unprovoked attack in Sydney’s Kings Cross in 2012.
Loveridge’s relationship with Ms Marson took place inside the cell he shared with another prisoner before the 21-year-old was moved to Goulburn Supermax prison back in March 2015 for stomping on a fellow inmate’s head
Pensini was jailed for 36 years after the 2002 killing of NSW Police Constable Constable Glenn McEnally (pictured)