Prison officer sacked upon discovery of criminal Facebook friends

A British prison officer was sacked after an inquiry revealed his Facebook friends included 13 convicted criminals, it was revealed today.

Nathan Singh, 27, was fired for gross misconduct after a probe showed he was friends on the site with a drug dealer, a fraudster and a murderer, The Sun reported.

His friendships with the cons were revealed after an investigation into claims he was supplying mobile phones and other banned items to inmates at Leicester jail where he worked.

No evidence was found to back up the accusations but the Operation Earlgrey investigators did discover his social network links to known criminals.

The newspaper published a photograph of Singh taken from Facebook showing him with a convicted fraudster at Cheltenham races. He was pictured with Tyrone Leadeatt, 28, who is serving two-and-a-half years in prison.

He was also friends with Mark Simmonds, 37, who served 10 years for a fatal stabbing outside a nightclub in Leicester in 1995.

Other friends included Daimi O’Brien, 26, who was jailed for two years for affray, and Myron Wallace, 26, who was convicted of drugs offences and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

A Prison Service spokesman said: “Following an investigation, a prison officer from HMP Leicester was dismissed in January for gross misconduct.

“He had been associating with serving and former prisoners, outside the course of his employment and without authority.

“We take inappropriate relationships with prisoners very seriously and staff who break the rules are liable to be dismissed.

“We carry out thorough checks when we recruit prison officers, looking at character and criminal records as well as nationality and identity. The vast majority of our staff are honest, hard working and professional.

“We work to create and support a culture which values integrity above all and rejects corruption and dishonesty.”

Shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve said: “Prison officers should be vetted before being offered a job to check criminal connections. Cases like this demoralise the vast majority of dedicated prison staff.”