A senior female prison officer has been handed a 12-month suspended sentence after her fling with an inmate was captured on her bodycam. Senior officer Tracy Boateng, 27, awaited her fate in court on Monday before being given a 12-month suspended sentence for an inappropriate relationship with inmate Vincent Ojo. Despite the severity of her crime, Boateng was sentenced for a single count of misconduct in a public office.

Boateng's relationship with the drug dealer inmate rose to the surface when colleagues discovered footage on the officer's bodycam. In the footage, Boateng could be seen posing for a selfie with Ojo, laughing and telling Ojo to "say cheese".

Snaresbroom Crown Court was also informed that additional footage caught Boateng using sexual language with the inmate and being affectionate with him in a prison office. The unlawful relationship took place at HMP Pentonville in North London last year between February 25 and April 19.

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Although Boateng was spared imprisonment, Judge Caroline English claimed that the charges could have been far more severe, citing that Boateng being the sole carer of a three-month-old baby secured her a lenient sentence. The judge stated: "I cannot emphasise enough just how serious this offence is. As a senior prison officer you held a position of authority and trust and were expected to discharge the duties by upholding prison rules. You knowingly breached those conditions with a prisoner who was under your supervision."

She added: "You are the mother of a very young baby, you are still breastfeeding that baby and you are the sole carer. One thing is certain, your child is a total innocent and the impact of your incarceration on such a young baby would be significant and potentially extremely harmful. It is for that reason, and that reason alone, that I am persuaded to take a wholly exceptional course and to suspend this sentence." Boateng joined the prison service in 2020, having achieved 83% in her anti-corruption training. The prosecutor highlighted that Boateng was "in a position of trust with an obligation to uphold prison rules" and had "deliberately engaged in an inappropriate relationship with Mr Ojo".

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Ojo had also been at the prison since 2020 after being sentenced to five years in jail for hiding 25 wraps of cocaine and heroin inside his bottom. After hinting at her relationship with Ojo to a fellow officer, the colleague suggested Ojo believed Miss Boateng was his "fairytale ending". Boateng's actions bear a resemblance to those of Linda De Sousa, who was jailed for 15 months earlier this year after being intimate with an inmate at HMP Wandsworth. Footage of the encounter went viral on social media.