Former Belmarsh officers and inmates reveal how ‘strapping’ criminals charm young female prison workers and ‘condition’ them into scandalous romances
Published: 16:41, 3 January 2024 | Updated: 19:21, 3 January 2024
Officers who used to work at Britain's notorious Belmarsh prison have revealed how some of the UK's most dangerous criminals - including everyone from armed robbers and Harrods bombers to IRA assassins - seduce young female prison workers in a new Channel 5[2] documentary.
Belmarsh: Evil Behind Bars - episode one of which airs tonight at 9pm - heard about how women working at the jail can get 'caught in inappropriate relationships' with inmates, who win their affections despite often having been perpetrators of violent attacks against women.
Former staff and criminals at 'Hellmarsh' - built next to the River Thames in South-East London[3] - claimed that often the answer lies in the inmates' impressive physiques as well as their ability to exploit members of staff for their own ends.McSweeney, 30, stalked, sexually assaulted and murdered the 35-year-old aspiring lawyer days after being released from prison in June 2022 - and despite being held in Belmarsh, he was caught having sex with a female prison worker in April last year.
Speaking in the Channel 5 documentary, George Shipton (pictured) - who was an officer at Belmarsh for ten years from 1992 to 2002 - expressed that it's no wonder women who work there may be attracted to prisoners
He was caught with the woman, who is not a prison officer, after the pair managed to gain sole access to a room inside the prison, which they then locked from the inside, a source said.
The worker, who is not a prison officer, has been suspended and has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct. An internal investigation is said to be underway into how the incident occurred.
Speaking in the Channel 5 documentary, George Shipton - who was an officer at Belmarsh for ten years from 1992 to 2002 - expressed that it's no wonder women who work there may be attracted to prisoners, many of whom go to the gym four to five times a week and eat well, given there are no takeaways and indulgences in jail.
'A lot of these geezers are big blokes,' he said. ' They're in really great shape and they just condition them.'
And former prisoner Noel 'Razor' Smith - who was an inmate from 1999 to 2001 - says that there is no place to find a beau in a 'building of 2000 men'.
'Big, strapping six foot two criminal walking around the wing without his shirt on, day in day out - and he's quite funny and charming and he treats you alright,' he said, explaining the appeal.
'I've known a couple of times when a couple of my mates were at it.
'One with an education teacher, civilian. Down in the education department, he was the cleaner.
It comes following today's news that Zara Aleena's killer Jordan McSweeney (pictured) was caught having sex with a prison worker inside the infamous top-security prison
Former staff and criminals at 'Hellmarsh' - built next to the River Thames in South-East London - claimed that often the answer lies in the inmates' impressive physiques as well as their ability to exploit members of staff for their own ends
'He got talking and then they got talking again and then eventually it led to a kiss and then eventually it led to her bringing him in cannabis and whatever he wanted and then they used to have sex in the broom cupboard down there everyday.
'So he enjoyed his sentence for quite a while until they got sussed out and she got sacked and he got moved to another prison.'
Meanwhile, Gareth Fox, who was officer at the prison from 1998 to 2005, stressed that it was often younger women being seduced by the criminals.
'We've had situations at Belmarsh where female officers have been compromised and caught in inappropriate relationships,' he explained.
'They generally tend to be the younger females that maybe not as worldly or as wise as some of the older female officers.'
But it's not all love and dalliances, in a place filled to the brim with dangerous individuals.
Among those who have had a stint in Belmarsh is the notorious 'Scalp Hunter' John Sweeney - who has reportedly enjoyed a flourishing career as an artist while serving a life sentence for two gruesome murders.
McSweeney, 30, stalked, sexually assaulted and murdered the 35-year-old aspiring lawyer days after being released from prison in June 2022
The killer earnt his morbid nickname from the vile sketches he drew of him attacking his victims.
'God, he's dangerous, John, big powerful man and all,' said former inmate Kevin Lane.
'He didn't talk to many people.
He used to chat to me and it weren't until years later I found out what he was in for. And I actually liked his company. Found him great company.
Great laugh. I just didn't know he was stringing people up and doing mad things to them.
'He's done some real mad pictures. Like he'd draw pictures of psychologists and that that he didn't get on with in sexual positions.'
And robber Samson 'Yammy B' Mirza, who also did a stint at Belmarsh, admitted that he'd once even asked Sweeney for a portrait.
'I hate his guts but he's a good drawer,' he said, calling the killer a 'strange geezer'.
'And many men were using him cause it's a good thing you know to send your people outside.
People pay him an ounce two ounce of tobacco cause his level was really really high.'
He - along with former inmate Joey Barnett - also continued stealing while they were in prison, targeting specifically anyone who had drugs on them.
However, Samson says he has 'no regrets'.
Robber Samson 'Yammy B' Mirza (pictured), who also did a stint at Belmarsh, admitted that he'd once even asked John Sweeney for a portrait
'It's not like you're doing it to vulnerable victims,' he said. 'We're all baddies in the jungle who have done horrible things.
No rules as far as I'm concerned.'
There was one unit even more tightly controlled than the house blocks, which was built as a separate prison inside the walls of the main prison - called the High Security Unit (HSU).
It has 47 cells detaining the most dangerous inmates in Britain, the ones designated as 'exceptional risk' category A.
High profile terrorists like the IRA, and Abu Hamza were held here.
'You're thinking you're going into a German prisoner of war camp,' Kevin Lane revealed when recounting his time there.
Officer George Shipton revealed that working at the HSU meant that you were working with a calibre of criminal that was able to pose threats to you and your family through their connections on the outside.
Tonight's episode also discusses relationship management with difficult prisoners such as Charles Bronson (pictured), who is notoriously violent and disruptive
Among those who have had a stint in Belmarsh is the notorious 'Scalp Hunter' John Sweeney (pictured) - who has reportedly enjoyed a flourishing career as an artist while serving a life sentence for two gruesome murders
He said that often, they were told to make sure they weren't being followed on the drive back home.
The programme described one instance where an inmate, in a tactic of intimidation, passed a note to an officer containing his wife's number plate.
Tonight's episode also discusses relationship management with difficult prisoners such as Charles Bronson, who is notoriously violent and disruptive.
Aged 70 today, Bronson was first jailed in 1974 for armed robbery, when he was 22.
He took part in one of the country's first public parole hearings last year and changed his surname to Salvador in 2014.
One of Britain's most prolific prisoners, he has been in jail for almost 50 years after a string of convictions both in and out of prison.
In the 1990s - while in Belmarsh - he took two Iraqi prisoners hostage in his cell, demanding a plane, sub-machine guns and ice cream from police negotiators before releasing them.
'We were known as Charlie's angels,' George quipped in the programme, explaining that the officers at HSU managed to have a good relationship with him due to a focus on de-escalation tactics.
A Prison Service spokesperson told the documentary: 'These are historical and unverified claims which have little relevance to HMP Belmarsh today.
'We have bolstered security to clamp down on violence and protect our hardworking staff.'
The Prison Officers Association was invited to respond to the programme but had no comment.
Who is serial axe monster 'Scalp Hunter' John Sweeney?
Former carpenter John Sweeney, 66, was once regarded as one of the most dangerous men in Britain.
He was sentenced to a whole life tariff in 2011 for butchering two girlfriends and dumping their remains in city canals.
The Merseyside-born killer was found guilt of the murder of US model Melissa Halstead, whose remains were found in a Rotterdam canal in 1990.
Over 30 years after his first gruesome crime, her missing head and hands have still never been found.
A decade later, he killed mum-of-three Paula Fields, 31, in London.
He cut her body up and dumped her remains in the Regent's Canal.
Sweeney was tracked down by police in 2001, and was then convicted of the attempted murder of another girlfriend, Delia Balmer, in 1994.
During their three years together during the nineties - shortly after he killed Ms Halstead - Ms Balmer faced a campaign of violence from Sweeney.
Just before Christmas in 1994, he attacked Ms Balmer with an axe, leaving her with stab wounds and without her left little finger.
By the time police arrived Sweeney had fled.
He spent years on the run before he was eventually brought to justice for the two murders and attempted murder.
The killer earnt his morbid nickname from the vile sketches he drew of him attacking his victims.
AdvertisementHMP Belmarsh: Evil Behind Bars airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 5.