A married prison officer helped a dangerous robber flee jail in an escape from Alcatraz-style plot.
Erika Whittingham whisked violent thug Michael Seddon off in her car after he left a dummy in his cell to trick guards into thinking he was still there.
The “smitten” 33-year-old then met up with the escaped con for romps in hotels across the UK while he was on the run.
Whittingham, who once played badminton for England, has now been locked up for three years.
Her barrister told Derby Crown Court she had fallen in love with Seddon, who was part of a gang who tied up and battered a farmer in 2011.
Seddon was eventually caught after six months on the run when he began a relationship with another woman. Prosecutors said the pair met at HMP Dovegate in Staffordshire, where she worked.
The jail has previously been dubbed HMP ‘Lovegate’ due to the number of alleged flings there between inmates and staff.
Whittingham and Seddon remained in contact via burner phones after he was transferred to category D jail HMP Sudbury, five miles away across the border Derbyshire.
Seddon escaped in October 2019 after leaving a dummy in his bed – copying the trick from the 1979 Clint Eastwood film Escape from Alcatraz.
Whittingham was waiting for him outside the jail and drove him to Stoke railway station, from where he caught a train to Liverpool.
Prison chiefs suspected they were in a relationship and she was quizzed at HMP Dovecote the next day.
But brazen Whittingham, who was estranged from her husband of 11 years at the time, remained in contact with Seddon.
They met on at least eight occasions at hotels in Birmingham and in Manchester, Tamworth in Staffs, Crewe in Cheshire, and Liverpool.
Whittingham, who taught badminton in schools before working in prisons, also bought him gifts including clothes. Mark Sharman, representing Whittingham, said: “She had found someone that she loved.
“Whether that was reciprocated or not, that is what she believed. She was smitten with this man.”
She was sacked by the Prison Service and will now lose her job working in a residential care home.
Whittingham, from Uttoxeter, Staffs, admitted harbouring an escaped prisoner and misconduct in a public office.
Recorder Balraj Bhatia told her: “You knew what you were doing was wrong.
“You were complicit in his escape. You were complicit in him being unlawfully at large for a long period.”
Seddon, from Bootle, Liverpool, was recaptured in Bournemouth, Dorset, in March last year and had his sentence extended by six months.
