(according to BBC News)
A man who had inappropriate relationships with two prison staff members and escaped in handcuffs from hospital has been sent back to jail.
Harri Pullen, 27, was arrested in Newport with crack cocaine on 2 April, but after being taken to hospital for head pain, he fled in a getaway car and was found a week later hiding in a rural farmhouse.
While serving a previous four-year sentence at HMP Parc in Bridgend, he had inappropriate romances with a jail nurse and a prison officer - one of whom was convicted, while the other sacked.
Pullen pleaded guilty to 11 offences, including drug possession, escaping custody, and dangerous driving, and has been sentenced to six more years in prison.
Former prison nurse Elyse Hobbs, 27, from Newbridge, Caerphilly county, was jailed for having an inappropriate relationship with Pullen while he was behind bars.
Ruth Shmylo, 26, lost her job as a prison officer over an alleged relationship with Pullen, who contacted her through secret calls from his cell.
Although she admitted emotional distress and failing to report the contact, she was found not guilty of misconduct in public office.
Newport Crown Court heard that Pullen was arrested on 2 April after plain-clothed officers spotted two men acting suspiciously on an e-bike in Newport city centre on 26 March.
Prosecutor Alex Granville said Pullen was found with five wraps of crack cocaine, a burner phone, an iPhone and £90 in a black bum bag.
After being taken into custody, he complained of head pain and was taken to the Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran, Torfaen, where he escaped in handcuffs by running through the hospital grounds and jumping into a waiting getaway car.
He was found hiding in a farmhouse outside Newport and attempted to flee once more, this time in a Mercedes, but officers followed him to a cul-de-sac and he surrendered after a police dog joined the chase.
Julia Cox, defending, said Pullen was "immature" and suffered from "hypochondria" believing he has had a brain tumour for about four years.
She added: "This was not anything that was pre-planned. It was more opportunistic than that."
Ms Cox said, when members of his family tried to visit him in hospital but were told they could not stay, Pullen "lost his head".
Pullen pleaded guilty to 11 charges including possession with intent to supply crack cocaine, dangerous driving and escaping lawful custody.
Judge Daniel Williams sentenced Pullen to six years, after which he said: "Thank you and I apologise."
(on a different BBC Article related to this topic)
A prison officer who had phone sex with an inmate has been found not guilty of misconduct in public office.
Ruth Shmylo, 26, of Treforest, Rhondda Cynon Taf, was cleared at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday.
The charges related to a period between December 2020 and April 2021 when Ms Shmylo worked at HMP Parc in Bridgend.
The trial heard she did not report issues, including that she had phone sex with prisoner Harri Pullen, a convicted drug dealer.
Ms Shmylo's probation period at HMP Parc was terminated in April 2021 but communications continued between the two after she had been dismissed and he was moved to a prison in Manchester.
These were were used in evidence to prove a relationship existed between the two while at HMP Parc.
Ms Shmylo told the court that Pullen threatened her and her family and, because of her poor relationship with other staff at HMP Parc, she had not felt able to report the problem.
The trial heard how Ms Shmylo began working at Parc prison in August 2020 and Pullen was moved to her wing shortly afterwards.
- Concerns over prison guard and inmate, court told
- Ex-prison officer and inmate had phone sex - court
- Accused guard says she feared for her life
HMP Parc's head of security Daniel Hayman told the trial that Ms Shmylo had been given training in issues such as anti-corruption and how to deal with manipulative prisoners.
In December 2020, Pullen passed a piece of paper to Ms Shmylo while the two were in the prison servery with a mobile phone number on it.
Ms Shmylo said that when she pushed the piece of paper back, Pullen had made a threat to her, asking: "Do you know what you've just done?"
Asked by defence barrister Clare Wilks why she did not report this Ms Shmylo said: "He would have known it was me."
She knew of Pullen's links to organised crime, she added, and that reporting him would therefore have "come with repercussions".
Ms Shmylo insisted that the phone sex had been initiated by Pullen, that she "repeatedly" asked him to stop and viewed them as incidents of "sexual harassment".
In some of the conversations, Ms Shmylo could be heard laughing, telling jokes and lightly teasing Pullen - behaviour, said the prosecution, that did not support her claims that she was reluctant to speak to him.
Ms Shmylo insisted that she thought engaging in conversations was the only way of "trying to damage control the situation".
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