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Prison health worker, 16 others sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for smuggling weapons, drugs worth £1m into UK prison (photos)

A HMP Lindholme health worker, Amy Hatfield, has been sentenced to 10 years today, Saturday, October 28, to prison over drugs conspiracy.

The HM Prison Lindholme is a Category men’s prison located near Hatfield Woodhouse in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. Lindholme is operated by His Majesty’s Prison Service, and is situated in close proximity to Hatfield and Moorland prisons.

The culprit, alongside 16 co-conspirators, orchestrated the smuggling of over £1 million worth of drugs, knives, and mobile phones into HMP Lindholme in Doncaster.

Amy’s involvement began when she was recruited to the conspiracy by her inmate lover Joseph Whittingham, who was jailed for more than 11 years.

Sixteen other people were also sentenced for roles in the operation on Friday, October 27.

They include five Lindholme inmates, family members and friends who helped to smuggle weapons and drugs including heroin, MDMA, spice, ketamine and cannabis into the prison.

This gave room for inmates at HMP Lindholme to have easy access to a wide range of drugs as a result of this operation.

They would place orders through prison drug dealers Whittingham 35, Jordan Needham 31, Kieran Murphy 26, Aneeze Williamson 30, William Francis 56, and convicted murderer Anthony Campbell, 38, who used co-conspirators outside the prison to arrange shipments of drugs and receive payments.

Meanwhile, Amy was arrested October 2019, after authorities received a tip-off about her sexual relationship with Whittingham.

At the time of the arrest, she was in possession of MDMA, cannabis, and Ribena bottles filled with spice, tobacco, anabolic steroids, mobile phones, and chargers.

Further investigation into her phones, movements, and financial activities led to the arrest and charging of several co-conspirators involved in smuggling drugs and phones into prisons for substantial amount of money.

After a 19-week trial, during which the 16 other people were convicted for their roles in the conspiracy, the nurse was sentenced to 10 years and two months in prison by Judge Kirstie Watson.

The judge deemed Amy’s affair with the 35-year-old inmate as significant breach of trust and abuse of position, emphasizing that Hatfield should have been aware of the detrimental impact the increased drug use was having on the prison population and the added workload and stress on her colleagues.

The inmate was not left behind as he was also involved in the operation and was sentenced to over 11 years in prison.