THE girlfriends of two prisoners have been banged up over a plot to smuggle drugs and phones into a jail for inmates and gang members.
Junior prison officer Daniel Annakin, 33, brought banned items into HMP Leeds with the help of Kirsten Barker and Sophie Jamieson in exchange for cocaine.
Leeds Crown Court heard how Annakin's position was exploited by inmates Michael Gardiner and Dane Jones.
The pair helped organise two meetings with their girlfriends for Annakin to bring items into the prison, including steroids and tablets.
Annakin was jailed alongside Gardiner and Jones and their girlfriends, Barker and Jamieson, who a judge branded "willing lieutenants".
Annakin was handed packages during several meets in Leeds in September and October 2017, the court heard.
During one meeting, the father-of-two was handed a large quantity of cannabis which his wife Joanna tried to sell on the open market.
A member of staff at the prison became suspicious after spotting Annakin carrying a bag while he was leaving Gardiner and Jones's cell on October 15, 2017.
The cell was searched and steroids, needles and tablets were found, and Gardiner tried to hide a mobile phone in his underwear, the court heard.
Three days later the cell was searched again and more items, which had been hidden in the cell, were found including a phone, charger and 81 steroid tablets.
Katherine Robinson, prosecuting, said extensive mobile phone evidence showed contact between Annakin and members of a Wakefield-based organised crime group, who were involved in the supply of heroin and cocaine.
Robinson said Annakin had two meetings outside the jail with Barker and Jamieson and was given packages to later deliver to the prisoners.
The meetings took place on October 7, 2017 at Ferrybridge services on the M62 and on October 13, 2017 in the car park outside the B&M store in Armley, Leeds.
Cocaine user Annakin was arrested when he went to work at HMP Leeds on October 16, 2017, and his car was searched.
Officers seized a mobile phone, a carrier bag containing vials and three 150ml bottles of class C drugs and a carrier bag containing steroids.
The court heard Annakin was in contact with a mobile phone number which shows him arranging to bring items into prison.
One text read: "Coke and 8z bud, that brown iPhone, two bottles juice, all the white tabs from other day and that boost bottle."
'PAID WITH COCAINE'
Robinson told the court: "He is seemingly paid with cocaine and is offered money instead when he states 'no mate not doing it anymore… tomorrow last one'."
Annakin admitted collecting more packages containing drugs and other prohibited items – but said he only ever took three into prison, the court heard.
"The other packages he threw away because they contained a drug which is a heroin substitute and has killed people," Robinson said.
The court heard on September 20, 2017, Annakin had been seen getting into a Ford Mondeo to meet a drug dealer.
Robinson said Annakin was carrying a large white plastic bag containing what the prosecution said was cannabis when he arrived home.
A text conversation from Annakin's phone shows another man later went to his address to get a sample of the cannabis, the court heard.
Annakin's wife Joanna sent a text to a friend saying he had caught a visitor coming out of prison with a "massive stash" of weed and asked if they knew anyone who smoked it.
The court heard there were no records of Annakin having worked in the HMP Leeds visitor centre in September, 2017.
JAIL TIME
Ben Campbell, defence for Daniel Annakin, said he "felt a great deal of shame".
"He was a cocaine user himself at this stage. He was a naive and junior prison officer having only joined in the January of that year," Campbell told the court.
James Gelsthorpe, defence for Joanna Annakin, said she is the sole carer for her four-year-old son, adding: "She has separated from Daniel Annakin."
Daniel Annakin, of Newland Court, Wakefield, admitted conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office and conspiracy to supply class B drug cannabis.
He was jailed for three years and nine months.
Barker, Jamieson, and Gardiner all admitted conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office.
Barker and Jamieson were both jailed for one year and eight months.
Gardiner was jailed for two years and eight months, and Jones for three years.
Joanna Annakin, of Newland Court, Wakefield, admitted conspiracy to supply class B drug cannabis, and she was handed a six-month jail sentence, suspended for two years.
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