Declan Winkless also posted the footage on Snapchat
A burglar has had his time behind bars increased by another five years after he was found to have filmed himself having sex with a teenage prison guard and uploading it on Snapchat.
Court of Appeal judges found Declan Winkless’s initial sentence for prison smuggling and misconduct in a public office was unduly lenient. He was initially handed a three-year and four-month sentence relating to seven offences in January this year at Northampton Crown Court that he pleaded guilty to.
The 31-year-old, formerly of Kirkdale Road, South Wigston, is already serving an 11-year sentence for aggravated burglary.
However, his additional sentence was quashed on Tuesday (June 30) following a submission to the Court of Appeal on behalf of the Solicitor General. His sentence has now been replaced with an increased term of five years’ imprisonment, reports Leicestershire Live.
The three-year sentence handed to former prison officer Alicia Novas, 20, of Holdenby Drive, Raunds, remains unchanged.
Novas, who was 18 and had only just started her career as aprison officer, began an inappropriate relationship with Winkless in November 2024, going on to smuggle cannabis, tobacco and two mobile phones into HMP Five Wells and HMP Peterborough for him, and to pass him confidential prison intelligence, including the identity of a prison informant.
Detective Inspector Richard Cornell, from the East Midlands Regional Prisons Intelligence Unit, said: “These sentences reflect the gravity of the multitude of offences committed. Novas had only just begun her career as a prison officer, having taken up her position on July 1, 2024.”
He added: “Unfortunately Novas used her position to form an inappropriate relationship with Winkless and to breach public trust and confidence further by illegally passing on information and smuggling drugs and mobile phones to him.
“Winkless undoubtedly encouraged this relationship and the unprofessional and illegal conduct carried out by Novas, and this is reflected in the charges he also faced and the sentence he has now received.”
Officers say the offences took place between August 1, 2024, and March 21, 2025. The investigation, carried out by the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, found that Novas was arrested in December 2024 after a mobile phone was found during a search of Winkless’s cell, though contact between the pair continued despite her bail conditions.
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