Prison watchdog boss who sent sexual vids to killer and smuggled drugs learns her fate

Prison watchdog boss who sent sexual vids to killer and smuggled drugs learns her fate Helen Spree, 63, also kept pillows with pictures of the face of a convicted killer who she ended up sending sexually charged messages too as well as smuggling drugs into prison on his behalf A corrupt prison watchdog boss who sent explicit messages to a killer and smuggled drugs has been jailed. Helen Spree, 63, began a sexual relationship with Dylan Westall, 35, where she sex explicit messages and videos with the convicted killer. The mum was also found to have kept pillows with pictures of his face on them when he was just months into the life sentence he was handed when he fatally shot a teenage boy. Spree was also went on to "confess her love" for another prisoner. The former business woman began voluntary work as a member of an independent monitoring board in 2017, which examined conditions for prisoners and monitored the way they were treated. But she later pleaded guilty to offences that included misconduct in a public office following a probe by the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit. She appeared emotional today after she received a total of five years and three months. Liverpool Crown Court previously heard Spree was appointed as prison chairman in January 2021, after being on its monitoring board, and was given "statutory powers to go anywhere in the establishment unaccompanied." The powers also allowed her to speak to prisoners and have her own set of keys. Andrew Scott, appearing for the crown, described how Spree "formed inappropriate relationships with three prisoners" at HMP Liverpool between December 2019 and her arrest in August 2021, reports the Liverpool Echo. He added: "Social messages about what was going on in the lives of the prisoners and Helen Spree, sexually explicit messages, messages in which Helen Spree provides prisoners with details of searches, prisoner officer deployment, adjudications, when matters were being referred to the police and when police searches and arrests were to take place. She also suggested that she would try to assist in having adjudications thrown out." Spree also took requests to bring in mobile phones and "associated items, Rizla papers and cannabis." The mum-of-two also intervened to prevent Westall from being transferred from HMP Liverpool and personally smuggled contraband into prison. Sentencing, Judge Neil Flewitt KC said: "These were not isolated acts of misconduct. They occurred frequently and over an extended period of time. Such was the extent of her activities, she became known as the prisoner's version of Deliveroo. "These were deliberate offences that required a high level of planning and sophistication in order to smuggle prohibited items into a prison. While I accept that Helen Spree was, to an extent, manipulated by her co-defendants, she was well aware of the risks involved in forming inappropriate relationships and was not coerced in any way to act as she did."