Helen Spree, 63, was chairwoman of HMP Liverpool’s Independent Monitoring Board when she had inappropriate relationships with three inmates and smuggled drugs into the jail
Helen Spree outside Liverpool Crown Court(Image: Liverpool Echo)
The boss of a prison watchdog engaged in inappropriate relationships with three inmates and had cushions at her home with the face of a convicted killer on them.
Helen Spree, 63, also smuggled drugs and phones into HMP Liverpool, where she had access as the chair of the prison’s Independent Monitoring Board (IMB).
Spree described herself as “the prison version of Deliveroo”. The mum-of-two committed the offences over a 20-month period up to her arrest in August 2021, a court heard.
Former-businesswoman Spree had a “successful career” as a sales director for a global firm and started volunteering as a member of an IMB, which checks conditions for prisoners.
She was later appointed chairwoman of HMP Liverpool’s IMB, a role which let her to go anywhere unaccompanied within the prison. She was even given her own set of keys.
Spree engaged in sexually explicit chat with three inmates – Dylan Westall, 35, serving a minimum life sentence of 22 years for manslaughter, Thomas Porterfield, 44, jailed for 13 years for conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life, and another man who cannot be identified for legal reasons, prosecutor Andrew Scott told her trial.
When investigators seized her phone it was revealed she had exchanged sexual images and videos with the three men. It also emerged she had two pillow cushion covers at her home address with the face of Dylan Westall embossed on the front.
Westall was jailed in 2019 over the killing of James Meadows, 17, who was shot in the head while on a motorbike in Huyton, Merseyside.
Details of requests for cannabis and contraband from the prisoners were also uncovered in her phone messages. Mr Scott said: “So frequent were the deliveries that Ms Spree described herself as the prison version of Deliveroo.”
Spree, of Roby, Merseyside, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to misconduct in a public office, conspiracy to supply cannabis and conspiracy to convey prohibited items into prison. Arthur Gibson, defending, said Spree’s career achievements were “a veneer which was hiding a personal life of abuse and trauma”.
He said: “By 2017 she had become seriously damaged mentally by her dealings with men and towards them had very low self-esteem. When it came to being flattered and treated as a confidante, she was easily susceptible to making what were seriously wrong judgments.
“Much of what she said in messages was bravado in order to attract more flattery and praise.
“This was not criminality borne out of financial inducement. It was borne out of a situation she found herself (in).” He said the discovery of the cushions at her house was something “one would expect with a teenager’s first love” and showed how much she had become “emotionally involved”.
Mr Gibson told Judge Neil Flewitt KC: “The reality in this case is this was an aberration. Your honour can be confident that she will never become involved in criminal activity again.”
Sentence will be passed on Spree and four co-defendants on Tuesday.
Dylan Westall and Porterfield also pleaded guilty at earlier hearings to conspiracy to supply cannabis and convey prohibited items into prison. The third inmate, who cannot be named, admitted conspiracy to convey prohibited items into prison.
Dylan Westall’s younger brother, Michael Westall, 28, will also be sentenced for conspiracy to supply cannabis and convey prohibited items into prison. He became part of the smuggling operation when Dylan Westall introduced him to Spree, with evidence of the two meeting up outside prison.
