Prison Officer Who Set Up Date with Inmate and Wore Gifts He Bought Her Escapes Jail Time

A PRISON officer arranged to go on a date with an inmate when he was released – and promised to wear the heels and perfume he had bought for her.

Michaela Crawford, 34, allowed Carl Catleugh to keep an illicit phone so they could swap flirty messages on .

The 34-year-old swapped pictures with the lag on social media site Snapchat Credit: Not known, clear with picture desk Prison officer Michaela Crawford arranged a date with inmate Carl Catleugh Credit: Andy Commins

In one Catleugh told her he had “done some shopping” from his jail cell and had bought her shoes and perfume.

He said: “I have bought you heels and perfume to wear on that date I am taking you on. I think we could make it work.”

And he added: “I obviously really like you in case I had not made that clear.”

Crawford, mum of a 10-year-old boy, replied: “I know, I want to wear those heels and save that perfume for our first date.”

Prosecutor Mahdev Singh Sachdev told Durham crown court today that Catleugh’s phone was discovered in a search of his cell in August 2024.

When it was checked he was found to be exchanging messages with a Snapchat user called “Kayla Crawfie.”

They had also swapped pictures of each other, with Catleugh taking selfies in his cell.

Mr Sachdev said: “It is clear the defendant was aware of the consequences of knowing he had a mobile phone and not reporting it.

Crawford was found guilty of misconduct in a public office after communicating with a prisoner while working as an officer at HMP Deerbolt Credit: Google Maps Crawford now runs her own beautician business Credit: Andy Commins

“The two of them exchange messages in which she acknowledges she could go to jail if it were discovered.”

Crawford quit her job at Category C HMP Deerbolt, in Barnard Castle, County Durham, and now runs her own beautician .

Catleugh was dealt with last year for his part in the offending, receiving an eight month suspended sentence for illegally possessing a mobile phone while in jail.

Chris Baker, mitigating for Crawford, said: “She has left the prison service and has been assessed as at low risk of reoffending.

“It is clear from her references that she is a person who can command a great deal of respect in the community.

“The and anxiety she had suffered has alleviated to some extent since leaving the prison service.

“It is right to say that this offending was a breach of trust but it was over a relatively short period of time.”

Crawford, of Bishop Auckland, Co Durham, wept in the dock as she faced jail after admitting misconduct in a public office.

But she escaped with a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months after Recorder Mark McKone, KC, said he had to bear in mind that she was the sole carer for her young son.

He said: “As a prison officer huge trust is put in you but you allowed a prisoner to keep and use a phone so that you could message each other, exchange photographs and discuss a first date.

“The messages also discuss losing your job and the possibility of going to jail.

“Prisoners are not allowed phones because criminals use them to organise crime. Prisoners can fight over phones and exchange them for drugs.

“Most prison officers are honest people doing a very difficult job, while unfortunately some others are corrupt.

“There is no evidence of physical contact between you in custody but it is very sad that you put your own romantic interest in a criminal above doing your job properly.

“You put your son at risk with this offending.”

Crawford wiped relieved tears from her eyes after she was told she had escaped jail.

She declined to comment after the hearing.

She is the second female warder from Deerbolt to appear before Durham crown court this year.

In February Ellis Eyles, 24, was jailed for eight months after a court heard of affectionate text messages and long Facetime calls with convicted murderer Mitchell Ingham, 25.

Ingham was a drug dealing would-be gangster at the age of 15 when he murdered innocent bystander Dominic Doyle, 21, outside a Manchester bar in 2015.

He and Eyles, who was then 21, began a romance while he was serving his life sentence at Deerbolt and she passed on the location of a segregated prisoner he wanted to “do in.”

Ingham referred to Eyles as “babe” and in one message she told him “I miss you xxx.”

The court heard that Eyles began acting as a go-between for Ingham and his family, passing on messages, including to his mother Diane Ingham, who was jailed alongside him trying to conceal his crime.

In sentencing Eyles, Judge Richard Bennett said he considered passing on the location of the other prisoner to Eyles was the most serious aspect of her offending after she admitted misconduct in public office.

The Sun told yesterday how there is an epidemic of female guards forming inappropriate relationships with male inmates sweeping the prison system.

At least 45 have been caught since 2021 — an average of almost ten per year.

They include Cherrie-Ann Saddington, 30, who got pregnant by paedo Bradley Trengrove at HMP The Verne in Portland, Dorset, in 2022.

She got a suspended jail sentence.

Olivia Johnson, 28, was jailed for three and a half years for trying to smuggle spice into HMP Highpoint, Newmarket, Suffolk, for her inmate lover, in September 2022.

Corinne Redhead, 32, was jailed for 25 months in 2022 after a sexual relationship with a robber at HMP The Mount, Hertfordshire.

And personal trainer Linton Weirich, 38, told how he romped with Linda De Sousa, 32, at Wandsworth prison, South West London, after she sent him flirty texts on a phone he had paid £1,500 to have smuggled in.

They had sex a number of times before another inmate filmed one romp and shared the clip which then went viral.

De Sousa quit and was later jailed for 15 months after admitting misconduct in a public office.

Weirich said: “It was obvious she liked me. Her banter was flirty.”