Prison Officer Sacked Over Facebook 'Friends'

A prison officer has been sacked after befriending known criminals on the social networking website Facebook.

Nathan Singh, 27, was fired for gross misconduct after an investigation showed he was friends with 13 convicted criminals on the site, including a drug dealer, a fraudster and a murderer, according to The Sun newspaper.

Singh, who worked at HMP Leicester, was subject to a probe into claims he was supplying mobile phones and other banned goods to inmates, when the Facebook "friendships" were uncovered.

There was no evidence to back up the accusations, but the Operation Earlgrey investigators discovered his social network links to the criminals.

A prison service spokesman said: "We take inappropriate relationships with prisoners very seriously."

He added: "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 carry out thorough checks when we recruit prison officers, looking at character and criminal records, as well as nationality and identity.

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

During the investigation, which was launched five months after Singh had joined the Prison Service in January last year, it found he had been in phone contact with seven of the 13 criminal friends on Facebook.

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

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

(JM/BMcc)