Sixteen people were sentenced on Friday for their roles in the complex smuggling operation.[1] They included five inmates of HMP Lindholme in South Yorkshire, along with family members and friends who helped smuggle drugs into the prison and launder the profits.[1] Amy Hatfield, a mental health nursing assistant at HMP Lindholme, flooded the jail with drugs by passing packages to prisoners.[1] Her inmate lover Joseph Whittingham recruited her to the conspiracy, and she was jailed for 10 years and two months.[1] Whittingham, one of the leaders of the smuggling network, was jailed for 11 years and four months.[1] Judge Kirstie Watson, sentencing at Sheffield Crown Court, said drug-dealing in prison was “an instrument of exploitation, oppression and power”.[1]
The group smuggled heroin, MDMA, spice, ketamine and cannabis into the prison, and contraband sold inside for up to 10 times its value.[1] South Yorkshire Police uncovered the network after Hatfield was arrested in October 2019 carrying MDMA, cannabis and Ribena bottles filled with spice, along with tobacco, anabolic steroids, mobile phones and chargers.[1] Police estimated the drugs she was caught arriving with had a prison value of £1 million.[1] The judge said Whittingham used Hatfield’s access to drugs to gain power in prison and significant financial gain.[1] The court heard toxicology tests found the spice recovered from Hatfield matched a batch that killed inmate Kyle Batsford, who had been bullied into testing the drug in September 2019.[1] Another inmate was left in a coma for 10 days and permanently lost the use of his legs after being pressured by Jordan Needham into testing a new batch of spice.[1]
Needham, who also recruited his mother Audrey into the conspiracy, was jailed for nine and a half years.[1] His partner Courtney Ward was jailed for four years and six months, the judge calling her instrumental in organising smuggling from outside prison.[1] Anthony Campbell, serving a life sentence for the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old boy in Liverpool in 2004, received deliveries from visitors arranged by his mother Deborah Stoddard.[1] Campbell was given a further 11 years to begin when he would have been eligible for parole, and Stoddard was jailed for nine and a half years.[1] Kieran Murphy was jailed for seven years and nine months.[1] Aneeze Williamson was jailed for five years and five months and Kora Haley for three years and four months.[1] Audrey Needham was jailed for four years and three months, Leighton Kemp for five years and Lee Holmes for two years and three months.[1] Natalie Williamson was jailed for 12 months.[1] Three defendants received suspended sentences for money laundering: Paul Whittingham 20 months, Lucy Whittingham two years and Lydia Pinnington 14 months.[1] A seventeenth defendant, Francis, admitted possession with intent to supply drugs and conveying drugs into prison and will be sentenced separately in December.[1] Police described the network as the largest and most complex prison conspiracy ever seen in the UK.[1]
