A 26-year-old prison guard who recently gave birth to a child will not be jailed after it was found that she had an affair with one of the inmates at the HMP Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. The woman was identified as Kerianne Stephens who was found to have a sexual relationship with Louis Tate.
Tate is serving a life sentence. He has 12 previous convictions for 33 offenses and initially denied having a relationship with Stephens. However, that all changed when he was shown photos of the prison guard.
The hidden relationship was exposed when Tate was moved to a different cell. It turns out that he was in the possession of a mobile phone, an iPhone 6, that was left at his previous cell. This led to the warden searching the cell, discovering the Apple handset hidden in a sock on a table. It was here where it was confirmed that Tate did have a sexual relationship with Stephens.
It was here where it was discovered that the two had exchanged calls and messages. Their last exchange came just 11 days before the phone was discovered. Stephens was arrested thereafter and admitted that she was three-months pregnant with Tate as the father. She gave birth on Sept. 29.
The affair started on Sept. 1, 2018, up to Jan. 8, 2019. The conversations on the phone showed that the two had been in touch while Stephens was off duty, prosecutor Maria Karaiskos revealed.
"Her mobile phone showed it had made or received over 50 calls and sent or received over 20 texts with the phone found in Mr. Tate's cell between October 14 and October 25 2018,” Karaiskos stated. "In summary, it showed that when she was not working, calls were made from her mobile to the mobile found in Mr. Tate's cell."
Per the defense, it turns out that having a child with Tate was her saving grace. She was coming off a broken relationship with an abusive partner. Both Tate and Stephens eventually pleaded guilty.
Despite the gravity of the offense, Judge Philip Statman gave Stephens a non-custodial 16-month sentence suspended for two years.
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