Police are investigating a shocking video showing a female prison officer having sex with an inmate behind bars at HMP Wandsworth. The woman is seen wearing uniform during the explicit clip, which begins with her performing a sex act on an unidentified prisoner at the Category A jail in south-west London.
The footage, which MailOnline understands to be recent, then shows her having sex with the prisoner while his cellmate films on a mobile phone. Footage of the cell shows a TV and piles of clothes heaped over a bunk bed. The friend who is smoking while recording says: 'Guys we've made history, this is what I'm telling you.'
The officer's radio, left on a side table, crackles constantly with her colleagues heard on the other channels above the din of the other prisoners on the landing unaware of what is going on in the cell. At one point, someone appears to try to come into the cell, at which the man filming, can be heard saying to the person on the other side of the door 'give me a minute, one second.'
The prisoner filming tells his friend to carry on and then pans the camera round momentarily and, grinning, says: 'This is how we roll in Wandsworth.' Vanessa Frake, former head of security at Wormwood Scrubs, called the footage 'shocking'. She told MailOnline: 'This is what is completely wrong with the prison service in this day and age! This woman disgraces not only herself, the uniform and the Prison Service.'
A Prison Service spokesman said: 'Staff corruption is not tolerated and the former prison officer allegedly featured in this video has been reported to the police. It would be inappropriate to comment further while they investigate.' The Met Police said: 'We have been made aware of a video allegedly filmed inside HMP Wandsworth.
A police investigation is under way. At this early stage there have been no arrests. We are in close contact with the Ministry of Justice.' Ian Acheson, a former prison governor, said the footage raised serious security concerns. He told MailOnline: 'If this footage is authentic and I've been assured it is, the problems confronting a likely new Labour administration go far beyond overcrowding.
This is a national law enforcement agency. The idea that recruits to it would even contemplate let alone participate in sex acts is a stunning indictment of the utter chaos inside this prison. It won't be an isolated incident. 'The state is no longer in charge here. The security implications and corruption threat is obvious and as explicit as the flagrant acts.
The widespread infiltration of illicit mobile phones will mean that this footage is seen by huge numbers of prisoners. 'How are decent female officers supposed to feel safe to do their jobs in an environment where colleagues willingly participate in their sexual humiliation and exploitation?'