Prison officer jailed for 15 months for having an affair with an inmate

Amritpal Ahluwalia, 31, was filmed on prison CCTV having sex with Colette O'Flaherty, 22, in the jail's salon

A prison warder has been jailed after he had an affair with an inmate where he worked.

Married Amritpal Ahluwalia, 31, twice had sex with Colette O'Flaherty, 22, an inmate at HMP Bronzefield, Surrey.

He was jailed for 15 months after admitting having sex with O'Flaherty twice, including once in her cell.

Ahluwalia bowed his head when he was put behind bars at Guildford Crown Court after changing his plea to guilty on the first day of his trial.

The pair began flirting in 2012 when O'Flaherty was serving a six-year sentence for firearms offences.

She had a job in the prison's hairdressing salon which was where they first arranged to meet to have sex under the pretence that she wanted to pick up some styling text books.

Prosecutor Brian Stork said: “Miss O’Flaherty was nervous - she knew what she was doing was wrong but the defendant was reassuring, telling her it would be all right.

“Once in the salon, she kissed the defendant. He undressed her and they had full sexual intercourse.”

O'Flaherty confided in a gym instructor who informed the governor and CCTV confirmed her account.

Ahluwalia, of Clevedon Gardens, Cranford, Middlesex, denied the allegations but eventually pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office.

Mr Stork said the defendant had worked at privately-run Bronzefield - which houses 600 inmates - since 2009 and was fully aware of the rules.

Ahluwalia's wife left him after the affair came to light but they are now back together.

Defence barrister Jemima Ivens said her client and his family “felt great shame” over his actions, that he realised what he had done was wrong and asked for a suspended prison sentence.

Judge Christopher Critchlow said: “This was sexual behaviour that was consensual but you should not have engaged in it and you knew that.”

The court heard Ahluwalia committed two further crimes while on bail. Both related to breaches of a non-molestation order not to contact his wife, who had left him over his affair.

However, the judge heard the couple had since patched things up and were now back together.

Judge Critchlow told him he would serve half of his sentence before being considered for release on licence.