Our thanks to Warren for this. Extracts from the BBC piece:

“The chairwoman of a prison watchdog board had inappropriate relationships with inmates and smuggled drugs into jail while comparing herself to Deliveroo, a court has heard.

Helen Spree, 63, led the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Liverpool, a body intended to scrutinise prisoners’ conditions.

Spree, said to have had a “successful career” as a sales director for a global firm, engaged in intimate conversations and sent explicit videos to three serious criminals, including a man who shot a teenager dead in 2017.

She pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to misconduct in a public office, conspiracy to supply cannabis and conspiracy to convey prohibited items into prison…

Arthur Gibson, mitigating, said Spree’s career achievements were “a veneer which was hiding a personal life of abuse and trauma”.

He said: “By 2017, she had become seriously damaged mentally by her dealings with men and towards them had very low self-esteem.” [J4MB emphasis: Woman commits crimes, men responsible. Same old, same old.]

“When it came to being flattered and treated as a confidante, she was easily susceptible to making what were seriously wrong judgments.

“Much of what she said in messages was bravado in order to attract more flattery and praise.

“This was not criminality borne out of financial inducement. It was borne out of a situation she found herself [in].””

Warren writes:

“In mitigation, we are told that she was ‘easily flattered into making seriously wrong judgements.’

Quite. She’s Chairwoman of the Independent Monitoring Board. She’s 63 years old. Yet has two pillow cases at home, embossed with the picture of a killer, with whom she behaves inappropriately..

Why do we keep giving responsibility to overgrown children who cannot tell right from wrong?”

—————————-

If you’d like email notifications of our new blog pieces, please enter your email address in the box near the top of the right-hand column and click ‘Subscribe’.

We shall shortly be posting this piece on our X channel.

Our YouTube channel is here.