Prison workers 'infatuated' with robbers smuggled 'sniff' and 'tiny phones' into jail for them

Two prison workers became 'infatuated' with two serving inmates and smuggled drugs and other contraband into their jail for them, a court was told. Amy Portwood, 41, and Adrienne Juniper, 35, were employed as carers, but 'collaborated' with convicted Manchester robbers Darren McAndrew and Philip Phythian, police said after all four were sentenced.

Portwood and Juniper also exchanged a string of 'overtly sexual' text and WhatsApp messages with the men - and even apparently got their initials tattooed on their bodies, a judge heard.

Liverpool Crown Court heard on Thursday that Phythian, from Gorton, had been serving a six-year sentence for robbery and possession of a bladed article in a public place at HMP Risley in Warrington in late 2021, while McAndrew, from Newton Heath, was subject to an extended 12-year sentence for robbery and aggravated vehicle-taking.

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Portwood and Juniper meanwhile, both said to be mums, were 'regular visitors' to the category C prison as care workers for contractor Care Plus.

Philip Astbury, prosecuting, described how they were responsible for caring for a disabled prisoner, but instead became involved in 'romantic relationships' with Phythian and McAndrew. Portwood's phone was shown to have exchanged 1,134 phone calls with the former over a period of a month, as well as 294 text messages, reports The Echo.

The two had also shared more than 1,000 WhatsApp messages between November 2021 and January 2022, including images which had subsequently been deleted from her device. Mr Astbury said that a number of these messages were 'overtly sexual in their content' while others