Ex-prison officer jailed for sex act on inmate

A former prison officer has been jailed after she was captured on her body-worn video camera performing a sex act on an inmate.

Rebecca Pinckard, 46, had the "intimate encounter" with Erion Nakdi, 42, in a store cupboard at HMP Highpoint near Haverhill, Suffolk, Cambridge Crown Court was told.

The mother, from Six Mile Bottom in Cambridgeshire, had previously sent a "loving" Moonpig card to the Albanian national, who is serving a 16-year sentence for drug offences.

After admitting misconduct in a public office at an earlier hearing, she was jailed on Friday for 32 weeks.

Gavin Burrell, prosecuting, said Pinckard was caught performing the sex act on Nakdi in two video clips filmed five minutes apart on her body-worn camera, on 5 July 2024.

The clips were found by another officer who was reviewing footage for evidence.

Judge Anthony Cartin said Pinckard's offending was "only discovered because of a clumsy mistake".

"Your camera had been activated during the intimate encounter," he said.

"The offence wasn't a one-off – it went on for a number of months and the card was sent."

Jailing Pinckard, he said her "conduct diminishes the public confidence in the criminal justice system".

He said sexual videos of Nakdi in his cell were recovered from Pinckard's phone, and "it's accepted the videos were filmed in prison then sent via social media by messaging".

The prosecutor said the phone that the videos were filmed on "has never been recovered".

Nakdi, who appeared in court by prison video link, admitted at an earlier hearing to the unauthorised possession of a mobile phone in prison between 2 July and 6 July 2024.

He was jailed for 10 months consecutive to his existing sentence of 16 years and three months over a conspiracy to supply class A drugs, for which he was sentenced at Luton Crown Court in 2022.

Rory Keene, for Nakdi, said: "This is really a tragic case of an emotional attraction between two people."

He described the Moonpig card as a "loving card".

Juliet Donovan, mitigating for Pinckard, said it was a "moment of madness" and it was "not a relationship".

She said Pinckard had been in a "19-year relationship - she had just left that relationship" and "her home life at the time... was particularly difficult".

She added that the mother sent the greetings card as Nakdi "explained he had been having problems with his girlfriend" and Pinckard wanted "to try to cheer him up".

The court heard Pinckard had been given a warning in October 2023 after being "over-familiar" with prisoners.

Her barrister said Pinckard's "giving of cakes and sweets" was "naively and stupidly trying to make the lives of prisoners somewhat better".

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