Nurse who helped her murderer lover escape from open prison is struck off

An ex-prison nurse who helped her killer lover escape custody has been expunged.

Mental health nurse Jane Archer was barred from a hearing to practice by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) last month.

Ms Archer, 55, was sanctioned for her role in helping convicted murderer Stephen Archer, with no family, escape from an open prison in Derbyshire in May 2019.

Archer, who had been held in custody for around three decades at the time, was held at HMP Sudbury and boarded Mrs Archer’s waiting car at the gates of the facility, where he was driven to her home in the Rotherham area.

Ms Archer was spared prison for her role in the incident and only received an 18-month sentence, suspended for 18 months last year.

But now she is no longer allowed to work as a nurse.

During the NMC proceedings, Ms. Archer said she had no intention of helping Archer, referred to in the documentation as Prisoner A, escape.

Instead, she claimed she would regularly go to the jail in her car and sit outside when he was “upset,” believing he was “reassured” by her presence.

Ms Archer added that at the time of the escape she did not expect him to get into the vehicle.

Mrs Archer then drove the prisoner to her home, helped him visit shops and bought him a mobile phone before dropping him off at Dover, where he lay for several days.

Stephen Archer was sentenced to life for murder and met Jane while serving with HMP Ranby

She then returned and picked him up, but the pair were stopped by police as they turned onto the M6 ​​towards Manchester and arrested.

Ms Archer had previously worked at Rampton Hospital, a maximum security psychiatric hospital in Nottinghamshire, a fact which the NMC said meant she had knowledge of both prison and mental health in the UK.

The NMC, which believed Ms Archer should be removed from the independent fitness to practice committee, said this was an aggravating factor in the case as the prisoner in question was in custody for the ‘most serious offense of murder’.

They argued that Ms. Archer’s behavior had raised “fundamental questions” about her professionalism and integrity, which could undermine public confidence in the nursing profession.

In her statement, Ms. Archer said she had never been a prison officer, but rather a mental health nurse who worked with patients in the prison system, adding that Mr. Archer had never been her patient.

She added that she had no idea where Mr Archer went while he was in Dover until he called her and told him to go back to prison.

Ms Archer also insisted the plan was for her lover to hand himself over in Manchester, in the hopes of being imprisoned there again, closer to his family.

She told the NMC that she made the decision to help him with the plan, as the alternative was to “let him stay on the street where he could harm others.”

Mr Archer was in custody at HMP Sudbury in 2019 before escaping

Ms Archer added that she had also returned to Dover to help him, as she knew he had “a tantrum” that had led him to kill someone before and would rather endanger himself than a member of the public.

She said she “wished it never happened and wouldn’t do it again,” but added that her patients were always her top priority.

Ms Archer also said she loved her job and wanted to continue working as a nurse at Alexandra Care Home, a chain of care homes in the south west of England, where she worked before the NMC issued a temporary suspension during her case.

She added that “a mistake does not make a person a bad person.”

However, the NMC argued that her act of aiding the escape of a prisoner she knew was dangerous could have harmed members of the public and had the potential to “seriously undermine the public’s trust in nurses.”

The fitness to practice panel agreed: “The danger that Prisoner A posed to the public if he escaped from custody would have been obvious to you, based on your experience working in a secure facility and your knowledge of the nature of Prisoner A’s crime.’

In addition, the panel noted that while Ms. Archer expressed regret for her actions, this seemed to be directed at the impact it had on her own work, rather than on other people.

“Therefore, the panel is not convinced that you have reinstated your behavior. It believes there is a real risk of recurrence,” they added.

When they determined that Ms. Archer’s eligibility to practice as a nurse had been compromised, they pronounced the most severe sanction to strike her from the nursing register, effectively barring her from working as a nurse.

“The panel felt that this order was necessary to emphasize the importance of maintaining public confidence in the profession, and to send a clear message to the public and the profession about the standard of conduct required for a registered nurse.’

During the proceedings last September, it was heard how Mr Archer met Ms Archer, who was then a prison warden, while serving with HMP Ranby.

The pair only started a relationship after she left prison service, but they were together for 14 years and although she was not married, she changed her last name to his.

Ms. Archer has 28 days to appeal the NMC ruling.