Prison nurse suspended over affair with drugs gang member inmate

It is the second alleged romance incarcerated Harry Pullen is suspected of having with female staff at HMP Parc in Bridgend, South Wales.

Hibbs, from Newbridge, Gwent, complained that Pullen was a “manipulative individual” who she felt “pressured” into flirting with.

Pullen was initially put in prison for his role in a drugs gang that dealt in cocaine and heroin.

On her release from the clink, Hibbs was ushered to a disciplinary hearing with the Nursing Midwifery Council to determine whether she was fit to resume her career.

The council deemed her whirlwind prison relationship as worthy of a 12 month suspension order.

Still in the slammer, Pullen has been serving a five year sentence since 2019.

Prosecutor Matthew Cobbe said jailors had caught whiff of an inappropriate relationship so had transferred Pullen to HMP Manchester.

Unperturbed by long distance, Hibbs’ phone number was found on Pullen’s approved calls list in his new quarters.

Cobbe said: "Having been moved the inmate's calls were monitored in HMP Manchester and it was quite plain the relationship with this defendant was being nurtured by the inmate.

"He contacted the defendant very many times and the bulk of it occurred when she was employed at HMP Parc."

Cobbe claimed the convict contacted Hibbs by recruiting co-conspirators in his own mother and a friend to find her on Instagram.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that the pair spoke via an Instagram account of the inmate’s friend.

He said: "The calls between them were flirtatious. They talk about the prison, staff within the prison, he tells her he loves her and she tells him he doesn't know her to love her.

"He tells her he loves her and she tells him she loves him too. The calls included references to the defendant's existing partner and the inmate continuously suggested he would replace him and be in a relationship with her."

Hibbs was arrested a week after quitting her post at HMP Parc in July 2021, and admitted to exchanging messages with the prisoner.

Cobbe said: "She explained that she and the inmate were never in a sexual relationship of any kind at all.

"She accepted she should have reported the matter but that she got in too deep and couldn't get out."

Though Hibbs admitted misconduct in a public office, her lawyer Adam Sharp reasoned that the prisoner was renowned for being a “particularly manipulative individual.”

Sharp said: "She was young, impressionable, inexperienced and vulnerable to the malign influence of the inmate who sought to exploit her."

Sharp lamented that Hibbs had “dedicated a significant part of her adult life" to nursing but her record meant she would be banned from the profession.

Recorder of Cardiff Tracey Lloyd-Clarke, told Hibbs: "You knew what you were doing was wrong, you had training but nevertheless you went ahead and formed what was clearly an emotional relationship with this prisoner.

"Although you were young you held a position of responsibility as a nurse and as a member of prison staff. You failed to report initial contact despite advice from a colleague and training you had had.

"You engaged in flirtatious relationship initially, you failed to report the on-going contact and you failed to report that this inmate had upon him and in custody an unlawful device."