Prison officer at HMP Fosse Way sent ‘explicit’ photos to drug dealer

A prison officer who sent sexually explicit photos on Snapchat to a drug dealer who styled himself as the “Latvian Pablo Escobar” has been jailed for eight months.

Jahvine Kwamba, 21, was working at HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire when she began a relationship with prisoner Roberts Sokolovs in 2024, Leicester Crown Court heard.

Kwamba, of Old Hall Crescent, Bentley, Doncaster pleaded guilty in March to two counts of misconduct in judicial or public office and a charge of transmitting an image and sound from prison without authority.

Sentencing Kwamba on Friday, Judge Timothy Spencer KC said he suspected Kwamba was “pretty lonely and vulnerable”, adding “you were easy prey” for Sokolovs.

Sokolovs was imprisoned for drug-related matters in 2022 due to his involvement in a county lines drug ring called the Jimmy Line, between Skelmersdale in Lancashire and Lincoln.

Prosecutor Rawaid Javed said sexually explicit photographs and messages were sent between the pair on Snapchat after Sokolovs was sent to an immigration removal centre at Gatwick Airport in June 2024.

The court was told because he was deported to Latvia in November that year, Sokolovs was never interviewed about his relationship with Kwamba.

While at HMP Fosse Way, there were 5,441 contacts with each other on Snapchat, and 4,211 contacts between them while Sokolovs was at the removal centre.

Kwamba denies there was any physical sexual contact between the pair, which the prosecutor said he was “sceptical” about.

The 21-year-old also received five payments from Sokolovs’s mother Zita Sokolova, 53, totalling £1,495 between 18 March and 2 July 2024, while 18 payments totalling £4,665 were sent to her in the same period by his 20-year-old sister Venera Sokolova.

Kwamba sent seven payments, totalling £660, to his sister between 27 March and 1 July 2024.