A Thamesmead prison officer has been jailed for smuggling phones in order to share romantic texts with an inmate.

Anita Offe, from Bexleyheath, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Friday for passing the phones, sim cards and chargers to co-defendant Elijah Mochia, 22, while he was in Thameside Prison in Griffin Manor Way, Thamesmead.

The offences, between December last year and January, occurred while Offe, 23, was working as the equality and diversity officer at the prison.

During the trial the court heard records of 4,500 calls between the two had been discovered on the phones and they had exchanged romantic texts.

One deleted text, recovered from Offe’s phone, read: “Black beauty of my life, I never thought in prison I could meet a black beauty like you.”

The pair were caught when they were spotted on CCTV meeting in a stairwell on January 20.

Prosecutor Alex Matic said: “It was noticed on CCTV that Miss Offe appeared to be acting in an unusual manner.

“Miss Offe had concealed items on her person and took them out of the CCTV area.

“She put them in a bag and Mr Mochia then left with them.”

Mr Matic added: “These are people who should be aware to the possibility of being corrupted and should be in a position to resist."

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Anita Offe smuggled the phones into HMP Thameside.

When police investigated they found the bag contained two USB sticks and two mobile phones.

Mochia also had four sim cards, two mobile phones, three Apple phones and nine USB sticks in his cell, alongside wraps of spice, a then legal high which has since been made a class B drug.

The court heard Offe had her son when she was 16, and he was sent to live with family Ghana for four years, before he returned to the UK.

Michael Smith, for the mitigation, said after a difficult start Offe had begun to develop a good relationship with her son that could be destroyed by a long sentence.

He added: “She doesn’t seek to blame the co-defendant or anyone else. She has never really suggested anything other than it was her fault.

“She has lost her career and lost her good name.”

Sentencing, Judge Anthony Leonard QC said: “You began some sort of relationship with him, you knew you should resist and report any such contact.”

However he took into account Offe’s fragile relationship with her son and said: “Only too often it is those who are not to blame who have to face the consequences.”

Both defendants pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to bring or convey List B articles into prison.

Offe, of First Avenue, received a 12-month immediate prison sentence and will serve six months before being released on licence.

Mochia, of Gleneagle Road, Streatham, was given a nine month sentence suspended for two years, a 60 day rehab requirement, and 100 hours of unpaid work.