Two female prison workers in love triangle with inmate
Two female prison workers have admitted having a relationship with the same inmate at the same time in a prison love triangle.
Aleesha Bates, 29, and Jodie Wilkes, 27, engaged in a relationship with 36-year-old Michael Cronshaw while working at HMP Buckley Hall in Rochdale, a court heard.
The two women pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office when they appeared on Friday at Bolton Crown Court.
The charges state that Bates had a relationship with Cronshaw between December 2019 and June 2020 while working as a prison officer at the Category C male prison, which has a capacity of 450.
Operational support grade (OSG ) Wilkes – whose Facebook page said she studied Law with criminology at the University of Salford – conducted her relationship with Cronshaw between April and June 2020.
The OSG role involves “supporting the smooth and safe running of the prison” and contact with prisoners tends to be limited.
Cronshaw was due to appear alongside the pair in the dock but the court heard he couldn’t attend after being injured in a road traffic collision.
He’s charged with two counts of intentionally encouraging/assisting the commission on an indictable offence — namely misconduct in public office – by engaging in a relationship, and possessing an unauthorised mobile inside a prison.
Judge Martin Walsh, the honorary recorder of Bolton, fixed a plea and trial preparation hearing for Cronshaw, of Droylsden, Greater Manchester, for Feb 1.
He bailed Bates, of Heywood, Rochdale, and Wilkes, of Horwich, Bolton, and adjourned their case for pre-sentence reports and they’ll be sentenced on Feb 13.
But he warned them that it was “no indication” of what sentence they would be given.
The court case comes after a female prison officer accused of having phone sex with a convicted gangster was cleared of having an illegal relationship after telling the court he was obsessed with her.
Ruth Shmylo was accused of making daily phone calls to the drug dealer Harri Pullen, 25, and even meeting his mother while working at HMP Parc, a category B prison in Bridgend, south Wales.
But the 26-year-old denied being in a relationship with Pullen, insisting she had been terrified of him after he threatened her family.
She was cleared of one charge of misconduct in a public office.
Pullen previously had a relationship with a nurse at the same prison, and she was jailed for misconduct in public office.
Elyse-May Hibbs, 25, was sentenced to six months in prison in 2023 and struck off the nursing register for 12 months, after entering a relationship with Pullen while treating him in jail.
