"You're a unique package": Prison nurse suspended after flirty phone calls with inmate

A prison nurse has been suspended after making a number of flirtatious phone calls with an inmate.

Heather Louise Darley, a mental health nurse, told her patient he was a 'unique package' and spoke of someone being 'hung like an elephant' in the calls, a misconduct hearing before a Nursing and Midwifery Council heard last month. Prison staff raised concerns after 21 calls were made from her to the inmate in April 2020.

The hearing was told that the calls contained unprofessional behaviour including flirting, offensive language and conversations which breached the confidentiality of other patients, YorkshireLive reports. The calls between April 20 and April 30, 2020, resulted in eight hours of recordings.

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An audit of the calls, recorded on the prison telephone system, found a string of unprofessional behaviour. This included seeking to cover up the provision of cocoa butter skin cream to Patient A, knowing it was a prohibited item.

The hearing was told that Patient A was a vulnerable prisoner with complex mental health needs who was apparently developing an emotional attachment to Darley. The panel was told that Darley's actions exposed both Patient A and other prisoners to a risk of harm.

In one phone conversion Darley told Patient A: "You've got it all, you, you're a unique package" to which they replied "A unique package, have I?”.

In another, she said: "Well, this is what I said to last night, right. She went – she started getting a bit like, warm yeah. I thought, I'll teach you. So, I said, 'Well, you never know', I says, 'you know, it could be hung like an elephant'.

"She's going, 'Give up give up, give up'. I said, 'Well, there's