Police probe shocking video showing female prison guard having sex with an inmate in a cell at HMP Wandsworth

Police are investigating a shocking video showing a female prison officer having sex with a prisoner behind bars at HMP Wandsworth.

The woman is seen wearing a uniform in the explicit clip, which begins with her performing sexual acts on an unknown inmate at the Category A prison in south-west London.

The footage, which MailOnline understands is recent, shows her having sex with the prisoner as his cellmate films on a mobile phone. Footage from the cell shows a TV and piles of clothing on a bunk bed.

The friend who smokes during the recording says, ‘Guys, we made history, this is what I’m telling you.’

The officer’s radio, which is on a side table, crackles constantly. Her colleagues on the other channels can be heard above the noise of the other prisoners on the landing, who are unaware of what is happening in the cell.

At one point, someone appears to try to enter the cell, at which point the man filming can be heard saying to the person on the other side of the door, “Give me a minute, a second.”

The prisoner filming tells his friend to get on with it, then turns the camera around briefly and says with a grin, “This is how we roll in Wandsworth.”

He then tells his friend who is having sex, “You know you’re a gangster!”

Vanessa Frake, former head of security at Wormwood Scrubs, called the footage “shocking”.

She told MailOnline: ‘This is what’s wrong with the prison service today!’

‘This woman not only brings discredit to herself, the uniform and the prison service.’

A Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘Corruption among staff will not be tolerated and the former prison officer allegedly seen in this video has been reported to police.

“It would be inappropriate to comment further while they are conducting their investigation.”

The Met Police said: ‘We have been made aware of a video believed to have been filmed at HMP Wandsworth.

“A police investigation is ongoing. At this early stage, no arrests have been made. We are in close contact with the Ministry of Justice.”

Former prison director Ian Acheson said the images raised serious security concerns.

“If these images are authentic, and I have been assured they are, the problems facing a likely new Labor government go well beyond overcrowding,” he told MailOnline.

“This is a national law enforcement agency. The idea that recruits for this would even consider performing sexual acts, let alone participating in them, is a mind-boggling indictment of the utter chaos in this prison. It will not be an isolated incident.

“The state is no longer in charge here. The security implications and the threat of corruption are clear and as explicit as the flagrant acts. The widespread infiltration of illegal mobile phones will result in these images being seen by large numbers of prisoners.

‘How are decent female officers supposed to feel safe to do their jobs in an environment where colleagues willingly participate in their sexual humiliation and exploitation?’

Two years ago, a female inmate faced a similar police investigation following a prison sex tape.

The woman, aged in her 30s, was filmed performing a sex act on a male prisoner in uniform.

According to official statistics, more than 80 prison staff have been dismissed or reprimanded for having affairs with prisoners since 2013.

Figures from the Ministry of Justice show that 59 female employees and 24 male employees were arrested until last year.

HMP Berwyn in North Wales had the worst record, with 18 female staff found to have had relationships with prisoners since the prison opened in 2017.

HMP Wandsworth was placed in special measures following a conviction report by Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor.

During an unannounced visit, he found that 80 percent of prisoners were sharing cells intended for one person, that 44 percent tested positive for drugs and that some had not showered for five days.

And despite the alleged escape of terror suspect Daniel Khalife last year, he said security remained a “serious concern”, with staff on the “chaotic” wings often unable to accurately account for the whereabouts of their prisoners.

Built over 170 years ago, Wandsworth is one of the oldest and most famous prisons in the country. It has had its fair share of high-profile prisoners, from Oscar Wilde to, more recently, bankrupt tennis star Boris Becker.

In his warning to ministers to place category B prisons on emergency measures, Mr Taylor described an atmosphere among prisoners “characterised by a level of despondency not encountered in my time as chief inspector”.

According to him, staff suffer from a lack of experience, poor management and a ‘poor or no relationship at all’ with prisoners.

He added that many are suffering from high levels of ‘burnout’, with a third unable to work every day.

Violence is an acute problem at the prison, with more than 10 assaults on staff per week. The population – which stood at 1,364 two years ago – had risen to 1,513 this month.

‘Wanno’ – as HMP Wandsworth is known to its inmates – was where former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker spent his first few weeks after being jailed for hiding £2.5 million in assets and loans in a bankruptcy fraud case .

Becker, who was later transferred to Huntercombe prison in Oxfordshire, said being a famous tennis player meant nothing in a place where he was surrounded by “murderers, by drug dealers, by rapists, by people smugglers, by dangerous criminals.”

He told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast: ‘You’re fighting every day to survive. You’ve got to quickly surround yourself with the tough guys, as I would call it, because you need protection.’

The brutal reality of prison life was exposed by ex-convict Chris Atkins in a book serialised in The Mail on Sunday.

Wandsworth made headlines last year with the alleged escape of 22-year-old terror suspect Daniel Khalife, who allegedly strapped himself to the underside of a Bidfood van with a makeshift harness made from prison sheets.

The former British Army soldier was arrested in January on suspicion of terrorism after staging a fake bomb attack at his army barracks at the Ministry of Defence in Stafford. He is also accused of spying for an enemy state, reportedly Iran.

Khalife, who is due to stand trial this year, denies charges of escape, committing an act prejudicial to the state, obtaining information about members of the armed forces and making a bomb threat.