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A prison health worker " flooded" a jail with drugs by smuggling packages to her inmate lover, a court heard.

Prosecutors said prisoners could buy " any drugs" they wanted inside HMP Lindholme in South Yorkshire while Amy Hatfield, 38, was employed there as a Mental Health nursing assistant.

Hatfield had a sexual relationship with inmate Joseph Whittingham, 35.

Their affair was at The Heart of the largest prison drug smuggling ring ever uncovered, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

Seventeen people are being sentenced for roles in The Conspiracy .

They include six Lindholme inmates, Family Members including parents, partners and siblings, and other associates who helped to smuggle drugs including heroin, MDMA, spice, ketamine and cannabis into The Prison and launder the profits.

Knives, mobile phones and Prescription Drugs were also secretly carried into the jail, where the contraband would sell for up to 10 times its value, The Court heard.

South Yorkshire Police uncovered the smuggling network after Hatfield, of Hawthorne Street, Barnsley, was caught arriving at work with drugs worth an estimated £1m behind bars.

She was arrested in October 2019 after officers stopped her entering Lindholme with MDMA, cannabis and Ribena bottles filled with spice, as well as tobacco, anabolic steroids, mobile phones and chargers.

Hatfield would have drugs delivered to her home before passing on packages to Whittingham and other prisoners Jordan Needham, 31, Kieran Murphy , 26, and convicted murderer Anthony Campbell, 38, to sell behind bars.

The nursing assistant, whose role involved assessing vulnerable prisoners for possible Mental Health problems, would arrange bogus appointments with the drug-dealing inmates to deliver the packages.

" She brought in such quantities and on such a regular basis that HMP Lindholme was flooded with drugs, " prosecutor Gordon Stables told The Court at the opening of a six-day sentencing hearing.

He Said Hatfield brought in " significant quantities" of spice, in both liquid and granular form, of such strength that inmates were " going over on it" and healthcare staff fell ill after inadvertently inhaling the fumes.

Toxicology tests found the spice recovered from Hatfield matched the batch of the drug, Kyle Batsford, who had been bullied into testing the drug in September 2019.

The Court heard another inmate was left in a coma for 10 days and permanently lost the use of his legs after he was pressured by Needham into being a " guinea pig" for a new batch of spice.

There were seven spice-related deaths at Lindholme in the two years before Hatfield's arrest but none in The Eight months after she was taken into custody, Mr Stables said.

Police said Murphy had planned to use knives smuggled into Lindholme by Hatfield to attack a Prison Officer .

Anti-corruption detectives had started investigating Hatfield, who had worked at The Prison since September 2018, after learning she had begun a relationship with Whittingham in the summer of 2019.

The Court heard Hatfield and Whittingham would meet for sex in The Prison , swap explicit pictures over contraband mobile phones, and would see each other two or Three Times a week despite other inmates waiting months for Mental Health appointments.

Mr Stables said the pair, who both had partners outside of prison, " made plans for A Life together" after Whittingham's release and continued to exchange Love Letters even after Hatfield's arrest.

Whittingham, from Bradford, used his wife Lucy and Father Paul as " bankers" who received payments from his customers, The Court heard.

Hatfield's arrest led police to identify other routes through which drugs were smuggled into Lindholme.

Campbell, who is serving a Life Sentence for arranging the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old boy in Liverpool in 2004, would receive deliveries from prison visitors arranged by His Mother Deborah Stoddard, 56.

The pair had previously smuggled drugs and other contraband into HMP Northumberland and HMP Wealstun in West Yorkshire during Campbell's time as an inmate in the prisons.

Mr Stables said Stoddard was " a Driving Force in the operation" and " acted as a banker for The Conspiracy , " as well as buying, wrapping and transporting drugs.

The Prosecutor said Needham and his partner Courtney Ward, 26, " exploited almost every possible avenue" to smuggle contraband into Lindholme, including fake confidential mail and an attempt to intercept another inmate's hospital appointment.

Mr Stables said " essentially any drugs inmates sought" were available inside Lindholme, with rife drug use placing staff under " extreme" pressure.

He added: " The Police are not aware of another case of this scale.

" The quantities of drugs and phones within The Prison were so great that prices dropped, making them even more affordable for inmates. "

The 17 defendants all admitted or were found guilty of drug supply or Money Laundering charges between February 2020 and August this year.

The sentencing hearing is due to conclude on Monday.

The Defendants and charges are:

Source of news: bbc.com