Mum Livvy Edney has been jailed over her secret relationship with the convict
Livvy Edney
A prison officer who sent an X-rated Valentine’s card to a convicted sex offender has been locked up over her secret affair.
Mum Livvy Edney declared her love for inmate Paul Young in secret telephone calls after she starting working in the prison where he was caged.
The couple would read poetry to each other and even discussed plans for a trip abroad once he was freed.
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Exeter Crown Court heard how Edney, 44, began working at HMP Channings Wood, in Devon, in 2020.
She started the relationship with Young in November 2022 after becoming his supervisor.
The prison authorities became suspicious and Young was transferred to another jail in January 2023.
Edney used two pay-as-you-go mobile phones, registered a false name and gave an address of a relative of Young to the prison authorities just so she could keep in touch with him after he was moved.
In telephone calls – which were recorded by prison authorities – they declared their love for each other.
Young also read out poetry he had written for Edney, while the pair discussed plans for a trip to Venice after he was released.
Edney was arrested at her home in March 2023.
In her police interviews, she denied any relationship with Young or knowledge of the two mobile phones found at her home.
Young’s cell was searched, with letters, notes and a Valentine’s card from Edney discovered.
The card depicted two penguins and contained a ‘sexually intimate’ message, which read: “Happy Valentine’s my love, the first of many.
“Roses are red, violets are blue, I’ll make you scream when I put my strap-on inside you.
“Love from your Valentine.”
Young was serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection after being convicted of sexual assault, the court heard.
Lee Brembridge, defending, urged the court to impose a suspended prison sentence.
He said the mum-of-three had since remarried, had a full-time job and was unlikely to reoffend.
Mr Brembridge said: “She is not the youngest prison officer, but there is a degree of inexperience in terms of the work that she had performed up to the period of her ill health.
“It really should be set against the background that she is someone who has her own vulnerabilities.
“Her vulnerabilities are very personal to her, which started in her childhood, and indeed continued in a 20-year relationship with her ex-husband.
“Edney has spent a lifetime living with anxiety, with depression, and everything which comes with a traumatic childhood, which then follows its way into an abusive marriage over the course of 20 years.
“Her life, indeed both her family life and her personal life, are now more stable than they have ever been.”
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Edney, of Grenville Avenue, Torquay, admitted misconduct in public office.
She was jailed for six months.
Sentencing, Judge James Patrick said Edney was fully aware of the ‘importance of maintaining boundaries in relation to prisoners’.
He said: “Young is somebody who had had a relationship with another officer in the past and that was something which intrigued you.
“From that period, you and he developed a relationship which became closer and closer.
“The prison authorities were concerned about you and your closeness with him and as a result of which he was transferred to another prison.
“That should have served as a warning to you, but it did not.
“It’s clear that you then started to set about making contact with him.
“You did so using subterfuge, you did so by pretending to be somebody else, you did so using disguised telephone numbers.
“You declared in those calls your love for one another, you read out poems, you discussed dating, you discussed meeting, there were multiple references to sexual behaviour.
“It can be said on your behalf that you brought the contact to an end.
“That said of course you brought the contact to an end, knowing firstly, that he had been transferred, and secondly being very suspicious as to what the authorities knew about you.”
The judge added: “I accept that there’s no evidence that there was any physical relationship.
“But plainly, your relationship was highly sexual, even if it was not physical.
“In my judgment, and with great regret, I conclude that I must send you immediately to custody.”
Detective Sergeant Will Martel, of the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit, said: “Edney went to significant lengths to conceal the relationship, knowing that it was a serious breach of her position.
“Corruption will not be tolerated within our prisons.
“Working closely with the Prison Service, staff across the prison estate and wider policing partners, we will continue to root out misconduct of this nature.”
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