The former mining villages north of Doncaster are hardly places most people would expect to find at the centre of a remarkable pattern of prison corruption cases.
But a striking cluster of scandals involving female prison officers — from illicit relationships with inmates to smuggling and wider misconduct — has emerged from one small pocket of South Yorkshire.
The Daily Mail can reveal that five young guards convicted of corruption offences all lived within roughly six miles of each other, in the former colliery communities of Bentley, Stainforth and Hatfield.
The most recent case is that of Jahvine Kwamba, 21, who was jailed this month after becoming involved with a convicted drug dealer who described himself as the “Latvian Pablo Escobar”.
Just a short drive from Kwamba’s village of Bentley lies Stainforth, where friends Morgan Farr Varney, 26, and Charlotte Winstanley, 27, each carried on secret relationships with prisoners.
Stainforth was also home to another disgraced prison officer, Victoria Sked, 33, who was jailed after smuggling drugs hidden inside a Pot Noodle as part of a broader criminal operation.
Nearby in Hatfield, prison officer Katie Evans, 27, began a banned relationship with a convicted robber, referring to herself as his “queen” while showering him with attention.
The concentration of cases underlines the scale of the corruption problem facing prisons across England and Wales. Ministry of Justice figures show 15 prison officers were convicted last year over inappropriate relationships with inmates — more than double the number recorded in 2024.
Bentley, South Yorkshire: Jahvine Kwamba
Javina Kwamba was just 19 when she became involved with prisoner Roberts Sokolovs while working at HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire
Roberts Sokolovs had previously referred to himself as the ‘Latvian Pablo Escobar’ in reference to the dead Colombian drug lord
Kwamba was just 19 when she became involved with prisoner Roberts Sokolovs while working at HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire.
Sokolovs, a convicted drug dealer who styled himself after Colombian cocaine kingpin Escobar, was serving a six-year sentence at the Category C prison.
After he was moved onto the wing where Kwamba worked, the pair began exchanging thousands of messages on Snapchat.
The 21-year-old then stayed in touch with the crook when he was moved to an immigration removal centre for deportation to his Latvian homeland – sending further messages, including a string of sexually explicit ones.
In one, Kwamba told him: ‘So horny for you I swear.’
Sokolovs replied with explicit material of his own and told her: ‘I love you too, you are my sweet cheeks forever.’
Kwamba, who also received payments from Sokolovs’ sister and mother, was jailed for eight months at Leicester Crown Court after admitting misconduct in a public office.
Judge Tim Spencer, KC, said her crimes ‘struck at the heart of the criminal justice system’ when he passed sentence last week.
He said: ‘The moment you begin such a relationship you expose yourself to all sorts of risk, not least blackmail, or coercion by him or other prisoners.’
Prosecutors said they were ‘sceptical’ of Kwamba’s insistence that there had been no physical sexual contact.
Her barrister said the inexperienced officer had been placed in charge of 64 prisoners after just four months in the job and was ‘well in over her head’.
Stainforth, South Yorkshire: Charlotte Winstanley and Morgan Farr Varney
Charlotte Winstanley was 22 when she began working at HMP Lindholme, near Stainforth
But Winstanley became infatuated with Jabhari Blair who was serving a 12-and-a-half-year sentence
Friends Charlotte Winstanley and Morgan Farr Varney shared everything – their shifts, their social lives and intimate details about their supposed ‘boyfriends’.
Yet while the entry-level prison officers openly traded relationship talk, neither initially realised that the other had crossed professional boundaries.
In 2022, Winstanley, then 22, and Farr Varney, then 21, started work at HMP Lindholme, a short distance from their homes in Stainforth.
There they underwent anti-corruption training and were tasked with maintaining order among the 900 inmates inside the Category C jail.
Yet within months both women had embarked on illicit affairs.
Farr Varney, now 27, fell head over heels with Jordan Stones, a convicted crack cocaine dealer serving more than five years.
She was caught slipping into a cupboard with him and investigators later discovered love letters in both his cell and her bedroom.
Stones used a smuggled prison phone to stay in touch and decorated his cell with provocative photographs of Farr Varney.
Meanwhile, Winstanley was conducting her own affair with Jabhari Blair, a gang member serving 12-and-a-half years for stabbing a man during a mass brawl.
The pair exchanged explicit WhatsApp and Snapchat messages, in which Winstanley told him she was ‘literally praying’ to have his baby.
Blair meanwhile responded talking of her ‘sexy lips’ and ‘little booty, describing how’ your body used to respond to my touch’.
They met in locked offices inside the prison for illicit trysts, with Winstanley on one occasion arriving an hour early for work.
Morgan Farr Varney fell head over heels with Jordan Stones, a convicted crack cocaine dealer serving more than five years
Stonesathan used a smuggled prison phone to stay in touch and decorated his cell with provocative photographs of Farr Varney
Mondays became their designated ‘date night’, a court heard.
Their two secret worlds collided when prison officials and police launched investigations.
Farr Varney would later tell investigators that Winstanley was remarkably open about her mystery ‘boyfriend’, referring to him only as ‘B’.
She recalled her friend bragging about having ‘sex daily’ and declaring it ‘the best she had ever had’.
In one graphic message Winstanley crudely told her colleague that ‘having had Blair… she would now never go back.’.
Winstanley kept Blair’s identity secret from Farr Varney, referring to him only as ‘B’.
Only after Winstanley was arrested and escorted from Lindholme did Farr Varney finally put ‘two and two together’.
She described herself as ‘horrified’ – despite her own relationship with Stones.
Farr Varney was jailed for ten months in May 2025 after admitting misconduct in public office.
Winstanley was jailed for two-and-a-half years at Sheffield Crown Court in February after admitting the same offence.
A judge described her case as among the worst of its kind he had dealt with ‘by some considerable margin’.
Winstanley’s barrister Khadim Al-Hassan said she was ‘deeply remorseful’, adding that the relationship was her first since school aged 15.
He said: ‘If there was ever a job that required an age of maturity requirement, this is one.’
Hatfield, South Yorkshire: Katie Evans
Katie Evans became embroiled with convicted robber Daniel Brownley while working at HMP Doncaster
Her criminal behaviour was only exposed during an anti-corruption investigation into another crooked guard (Pictured: Evans with Brownley)
Less than two miles away in Hatfield, another former mining village, Katie Evans became embroiled with convicted robber Daniel Brownley while working at HMP Doncaster.
Evans, then 21, boasted about performing sex acts on the criminal inside the category B prison and collecting drugs cash on his behalf.
Her criminal behaviour was only exposed during an anti-corruption investigation into another crooked guard.
Until then she had evaded security measures allowing her to sneak in contraband including Spice for Brownley, who was serving five and a half years for robbery and burglary.
Analysis of a phone revealing 140 calls between the pair, with Evans ringing his illicit prison phone 39 times in one 11-hour period.
Some of their calls lasted as long as 49 minutes and a search of Evans’s home also uncovered a stash of love letters between the pair.
Sheffield Crown Court heard how Evans called herself ‘your queen’ while talking to Brownley during explicit calls.
She was jailed in March last year for 21 months, a sentence described as an ‘act of mercy’ owing to her young daughter.
Judge Jeremy Richardson said her behaviour was a ‘serious manifestation’ of corruption that undermined public confidence in the prison system.
He told her: ‘You were manipulated by a serious criminal to assist him. Your misconduct materially affected the good order and discipline of the prison.’
Stainforth, South Yorkshire: Victoria Sked
Victoria Sked was working at HMP Lindholme when she was found to be smuggling drugs in a Pot Noodle container
The fifth officer from this tiny corner of South Yorkshire was Victoria Sked.
Sked was working at HMP Lindholme when she was searched arriving for work in August 2018.
Inside an open Pot Noodle container in her bag were two clingfilm-wrapped packages.
A further search revealed steroids, phones, tobacco, nicotine and MDMA concealed in her clothing, while cannabis had been hidden internally.
Police searching her home then discovered more phones, cannabis, drug-soaked paper and almost £8,000 in cash.
Sked became part of a sprawling investigation into a conspiracy involving prisoners, relatives and accomplices outside the jail who were supplying drugs and other contraband.
She eventually admitted drug-smuggling and money-laundering offences and was jailed for three years and 11 months in December 2024.
The sentencing judge described drugs inside prisons as an ‘instrument of power, extortion and oppression’ which could fundamentally undermine discipline and good order.
Judge Megan Rhys said: ‘Drugs and drug substitutes are entirely inimical to the rule of law within prisons.
‘They enrich and give power to ruthless prisoners who exploit others to create debts that are difficult to service without resorting to bullying and intimidation and to the commission of further crime, both inside and outside the prisons.
‘They have an inherently corrosive and corruptive influence, they fundamentally undermine discipline and good order, and are capable of feeding the addiction of those who should be able to make use of their time in prison to become drug-free.’
One of the main reasons given for the increase in prison staff corruption cases is the number of inexperienced staff in prisons.
A parliamentary research briefing in May revealed that, at the turn of the year, a third of prison officers had less than three years’ service.
Of 22,067 uniformed officers, just 5,519 had ten years or more experience.
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, suggested inadequate vetting and training was enabling criminals to exploit young recruits.
He said: ‘What they’ll do is that a new member of staff will start.
‘They’ll set a couple of prisoners on him or her. Start bullying them, giving them a really hard time, being a bit crazy with them, and then some very charming person will come along and say, ‘Leave them alone. How dare you speak to her like that. Don’t worry, love, you’re with me.’
‘By then they’ve already begun to reel that person in and begin a collusive-type relationship. And that immediately is something that sophisticated prisoners can start to try and exploit.’
A Prison Service spokesman previously said: ‘The majority of prison staff are honest and hard-working, regardless of their age.
‘We are catching more of the minority who break the rules through our Counter-Corruption Unit and stronger vetting. Where officers fall below our high standards, we do not hesitate to take robust action.’
