A prison psychologist, Amber-Renee Gayle, has been sentenced to 28 months’ imprisonment after being convicted of having a sexual relationship with a convicted murderer Rickcarlo Williams in therapy room and helping him smuggle prohibited items into prison.

Reports noted that Ms Gayle began working with Mr Williams, 24, in 2023, when he started making sexual advances towards her. 

She reportedly informed her superior about the advances but later succumbed to his advances one year later following an alleged personal health crisis and the discovery that her boyfriend of 10 years had been cheating on her. 

During the course of their relationship, Ms Gayle allowed Mr Williams to record videos of their sexual escapades in a ‘Cabin room’ at HMP Swinfen Hall in Staffordshire. It was gathered that she usually had therapy sessions with inmates in the room.

The court heard that over a six-month period in 2024, the pair reportedly exchanged more than 12,000 messages on secret phones, which included intimate photos of themselves.

Prosecutions alleged that Ms Gayle also helped Mr Williams smuggle handsets, SIM cards, dongles and chargers concealed in a hollowed-out dictionary, a Heinz baked bean tin or a can of Monster energy drink into the prison facility. 

Through the scheme, they ferried 35 mobile phones, three phone chargers, four dongles and nine SIM cards into HMP Swinfen Hall, netting an estimated £9,500 in illegal earnings after charging £50 for a SIM card, £500 for a USB stick and up to £2,000 for an iPhone. 

Sentencing her at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Sarah Buckingham said Ms Gayle was guilty of a “gross breach of trust,” adding that “Corruption creates an unsafe environment for those working in the system.”

The judge subsequently sentenced Ms Gayle to 14 months prison term for conspiracy to convey banned items into prison and gave a consecutive eight-month sentence for misconduct in public office. 

She was also handed an additional six months after confessing to accessing the prison’s National Offender Management Information System to obtain information about serving prisoners. 

Meanwhile, Mr Williams, who is serving a minimum 25-year prison sentence for macheting Hussein Al-Saabri to death in 2020, will have an additional 14 months added to his sentence when he becomes eligible for parole in 2043.

Photo credit: Staffordshire Police