A prison officer filmed having sex with an inmate at Wandsworth Prison has pleaded guilty to misconduct.
Linda De Sousa Abreu, 30, of Fulham was charged after the video, filmed in a prison cell at the end of June, was shared on social media. De Sousa Abreu was arrested shortly afterwards attempting to board a flight to Madrid at Heathrow Airport, and was charged with misconduct in public office.
At a hearing at Isleworth Crown Court, De Sousa Abreu pleaded guilty to the charge that she had “wilfully and without reasonable excuse or justification misconducted yourself in a way which amounted to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder by engaging in a sexual act with a prisoner in a prison cell.”
She was granted conditional bail, with her passport held by the police, and will appear again at Isleworth Crown Court on 7 November for sentencing. After the hearing, De Sousa Abreu behaviour was described by a representative of the Crown Prosecution Service as “a shocking breach of the public’s trust.”
The representative added that she was she was “clearly an enthusiastic participant who wrongly thought she would avoid responsibility… She will now rightly face the consequences of her actions.”
Friend claims she was coerced
Media interest in the case has been significant, with De Sousa Abreu’s followed by photographers and her social media posts about the encounter producing their own news story. After the hearing, a “close friend” of the former guard, identified as “Hayley” told a number of media outlets that De Sousa Abreu that far from being a willing participant, she had been pressured into having sex at the prison.
The friend claimed that prisoners had got hold of her personal details, including her husband’s name, knew that she had an OnlyFans account – a social media service often associated with sexual content – and there was “a lot of coercion involved.”
At the hearing, De Sousa Abreu’s lawyer described her as a “young mother and person of good character.”
The controversy surrounding the sex tape has served to heighten concerns over Wandsworth Prison following the resignation of its governor in May after a local campaign revealed appalling conditions at the prison, a scathing independent review and report by the chief inspector of prisons, and just last month the unexpected death of a former Met detective who was facing misconduct charges and was found dead in his cell.
