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A corrupt prison watchdog boss who billed herself “the prisoners’ Deliveroo” has been jailed for five years after admitting sending sexual messages to a killer inmate and smuggling drugs.
Helen Spree, 63, was the head of the independent monitoring board (IMB) for HMP Liverpool when she engaged in illicit chats with prisoners over a 20-month period. Spree was said to have become besotted with Dylan Westall, 35, who was serving a life sentence for manslaughter for shooting a teenager in the head.
Police who searched her home in August 2021 found two custom-made pillows with Westall’s face and a gun embossed on them, Liverpool crown court heard. She also had a tattoo on her chest of a bumblebee holding a love heart, with the word “Masterpiece” underneath – a name used for her by Westall in a thank-you card discovered by officers.
Spree was on Tuesday jailed for five years and three months after pleading guilty to misconduct in a public office, conspiracy to supply cannabis and conspiracy to convey prohibited items into prison.
Her suspension by the prisons watchdog was first revealed by the Guardian in October 2021. The court heard that Spree had enjoyed a successful career as a sales director for a global firm and started volunteering in 2017 as a member of an IMB, which scrutinises conditions in prisons in England and Wales.
She was appointed head of HMP Liverpool’s IMB in January 2021, allowing her unsupervised access to the category B prison and her own set of keys.
The court heard that Spree also sent explicit messages to two other prisoners and disclosed details of cell searches, prisoner officer deployments and told them when arrests were to take place. She was found to have transferred £100 to Westall and smuggled in cannabis, mobile phones, sim cards and phone chargers. In one message she referred to herself “as the prisoner’s version of Deliveroo”, the court heard.
Spree, who had no previous convictions, denied engaging in any direct physical sexual activity with the prisoners.
Judge Flewitt KC said he had no doubt that she saw her role at the IMB as an opportunity to be a force for good. However, he said: “You allowed yourself to be used to bring in cannabis and other prohibited items for their benefit and personal use.
“These were deliberate offences which required a high level of planning and sophistication.”
Flewitt said she was “to some extent manipulated” by the prisoners “who clearly saw you as a person who could be turned to their advantage” despite being an intelligent woman in a senior position of authority.
He accepted she was “susceptible” to this manipulation after her barrister, Arthur Gibson, told the court she had hid a personal life of “abuse and trauma”.
Gibson said that by 2017 she had become “seriously damaged mentally by her dealings with men and towards them had very low self-esteem” and that she was easily susceptible to “being flattered and treated as a confidante”.
He said the discovery of the pillows at her house was something “one would expect with a teenager’s first love” and showed how much she had become “emotionally involved”.
Westall received a 12-month sentence after admitting plotting to smuggle drugs and other items into HMP Liverpool, a term he will serve in addition to his 22-year life sentence, handed down in 2019.
