Overview
- On Tuesday the court recorded that Michaela Crawford admitted misconduct in public office and was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for 18 months.
- Prosecutors said a mobile phone found in Carl Catleugh’s cell in August 2024 contained Snapchat messages identifying Crawford and showing exchanges about gifts, photos and plans for a post-release date.
- Messages recovered from the inmate’s phone included Crawford acknowledging she risked losing her job and facing jail if the phone was discovered, which prosecutors used as central evidence.
- Crawford left the Prison Service after the phone was found, runs a beautician business, was described in mitigation as the sole carer for her young son and was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and pay £150 costs.
- Judges and prosecutors warned the case underlines the wider problem of contraband phones enabling organised crime and violence inside prisons and follows a separate Deerbolt staff–inmate prosecution earlier this year.