Woman, 26, jailed for misconduct in a public office

A 26-year-old woman has been jailed for 12 months after she pleaded guilty to two counts of misconduct in a public office.

Aimee Duke, of Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes, joined HMP Five Wells in Wellingborough in April 2022 as a prison officer.

On August 12, 2022, Duke was the subject of a staff search whereby a piece of paper with one of the prisoner’s ID numbers was found in her purse.

Following this search, CCTV inside the prison was reviewed which uncovered her interacting inappropriately with several prisoners.

This included being on wings of the prison she wasn’t rostered to work on, carrying her own bag onto the prison wing which was prohibited, and entering prisoner’s cells when she had no professional reason to do so.

Duke was arrested at work on September 23, 2022, and her mobile phone was seized.

Numerous SMS messages between her and one of the prisoners were found on the device, indicating an inappropriate relationship between the pair.

In one message, the prisoner wrote “I want us to be together 100%”. In another, Duke messaged him “I can’t wait to see you”.

Duke was subsequently charged with four counts of misconduct in a public office.  On May 1, at Northampton Crown Court she admitted two of the charges, however denied the other two offences.

She returned to the same court on Tuesday, August 26, where she was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for the two offences she admitted. A further two counts of misconduct in a public office were ordered to remain on file.

Lead investigator - Detective Inspector Richard Cornell from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit said: “Prison officers are in positions of authority and unfortunately, Aimee Duke used her position to form inappropriate relationships.

“Her actions do not reflect the fact that most prison staff are law-abiding citizens who carry out their duties to the highest standards.

“I hope this sentence sends a clear message to those who seek to undermine public trust while holding positions of authority that inappropriate behaviour such as in this case will be robustly dealt with using the full force of the law.”