Helen Spree, 63, the chairwoman of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Liverpool, was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court for smuggling cannabis and other prohibited items into the prison.[1] She had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to misconduct in a public office, conspiracy to supply cannabis and conspiracy to convey prohibited items into prison.[1] Spree joined the board as a volunteer in 2017 and was appointed its chair in January 2021, a role that let her move anywhere in the prison unaccompanied with her own keys.[2] The court heard she had become besotted with the inmate Dylan Westall, 35, who was serving a life sentence for manslaughter.[2]
The offences ran over a 20-month period and ended with her arrest in August 2021, when police searching her home found two custom-made pillows bearing Westall’s face.[3] Prosecutors said her deliveries were so frequent that she called herself the prisoners’ version of Deliveroo.[1] She also passed prisoners details of when cell searches would take place and of prison officer deployments.[1] Judge Neil Flewitt KC accepted she had been manipulated to some extent but called the offences deliberate, planned and sophisticated, and noted she gained no money from them.[1]
Spree was jailed for five years and three months.[2] Sentence was passed on Spree and four co-defendants on Tuesday 2 June 2026.[3] The other four defendants were the inmates Dylan Westall and Thomas Porterfield, a third inmate who cannot be named, and Westall’s brother Michael Westall, 28.[1] Dylan Westall, 35, serving life with a minimum of 22 years for the manslaughter of a 17-year-old, got 12 months to run alongside that term.[1] Porterfield got 22 months suspended for 18 months, Michael Westall got 20 months suspended for 18 months, and the unnamed inmate was jailed for two years and 10 months.[1]
