They say that love knocks on your door when you least expect it. This is what happened to Elyse Hibbs, a 25-year-old nurse, who fell in love with an inmate while working at the HM private prison in Bridgend, Wales, UK, and now faces the consequences of her misconduct.
Hibbs worked in the category B prison since September 2018, it was then that he found love in a prisoner, whose name was not revealed, as he needed medical treatment. However, following the prisoner’s increasing misbehavior, he was transferred to another prison in Manchester, England, in May 2021.
A month later, the intern asked his mom and a friend for help investigating the nurse who stole his heart. It was so through Instagram, both kept in touch, and then exchanged phone numbers, starting an inadequate relationship of almost two months.
As some of the calls were made through prison phones, the main evidence was the recordings of these conversations, which, according to Matthew Cobb, a criminal lawyer, were made with an intention of romance and evident flirtation.
He says that he loves her and she replies that she loves him too. Although in the conversations the accused asks the inmate to stop contacting her, the calls continue to happen.
For his part, Adam Sharp, Elyse’s defender, pointed out that she was 23 years old when the unfortunate encounter occurred, so she was “young, easy to impress and relatively inexperienced.” In addition, he added that the meetings took place at a distance, since the couple was no longer in the same prison, which is why the lawyer requested that his sentence be suspended.
The inappropriate behavior did not occur face-to-face, nor was there even physical proximity between the two.
However, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke did not find Hibbs’ way of acting justifiable, so she did not touch her heart to send her to jail for six months. Basically, she said that regardless of the defendant’s age, she was aware that she was doing wrong and that despite her remorse she did not do the right thing.
You engaged in an inappropriate relationship, failed to report contact, and ultimately failed to report that the inmate had an illegal device in prison. Although you were young, you were in a responsible position as a nurse and as a member of the jail workers.