Teen prison officer jailed over sex with inmate lover

A former prison officer who engaged in a sexual relationship with an inmate at HMP Five Wells and smuggled cannabis and mobile phones into the jail has been jailed for three years.

Alicia Novas, now 20, was sentenced at Northampton Crown Court after pleading guilty to two counts of misconduct in public office.

Her lover, prisoner Declan Winkless, 31, received three years and four months consecutive to his existing 11-year-and-three-month sentence for conspiracies to burgle.

Judge Rebecca Crane told the court that two videos showing Novas having sexual intercourse while in her prison uniform were filmed by Winkless and shared on Snapchat.

The footage subsequently appeared in the national press.

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Novas, of Raunds, Northamptonshire, began working at HMP Five Wells in Wellingborough as an 18-year-old officer.

She exchanged almost 3,000 messages and calls with Winkless using four illicit mobile phones he possessed in custody.

The relationship turned sexual by November 16, 2024.

Winkless filmed the encounters and distributed the material online.

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Novas also smuggled two mobile phones and a quantity of cannabis into the prison for Winkless.

On November 23, 2024, she disclosed the identity of a prison informant to Winkless and revealed what intelligence staff held about his activities.

Judge Crane said this placed the informant at very considerable risk of serious violence and undermined prison security.

Both defendants appeared via video link from HMP Peterborough.

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They had previously pleaded guilty to additional offences including conveying prohibited articles into a prison and unauthorised transmission of images from within a prison on two separate periods, covering dates before and after Novas’s arrest.

Winkless further admitted possession of an unauthorised Motorola phone found in his cell on December 22, 2024.

The judge described Novas as naive and immature and accepted she had been manipulated by Winkless, who had expressed romantic interest and offered expensive gifts.

However, Judge Crane stressed that even an inexperienced officer would know the dangers of identifying an informant to another prisoner.

She noted Novas could have reported the contact but chose to persist over several months, even after her initial arrest.

Defence mitigation highlighted that Novas suffered from undiagnosed emotionally unstable personality disorder at the time of the offending.

The judge said the misconduct seriously damaged public trust in the prison service and compromised safety and security at HMP Five Wells.

Novas was sentenced to three years imprisonment.

Winkless received three years and four months for encouraging and assisting the misconduct in public office, plus concurrent terms for the other offences.