Prison officer ‘Smitten’ helps her lover escape – then starts seeing another woman

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The court heard that a “smitten” prison officer helped her inmate escape from prison, who then continued to have an affair with another woman during her escape.

Erica Whittingham, 33, became fascinated by violent robber Michael Seddon while working at HMP Dovegate in Staffordshire.

Seddon, who was jailed in 2011 for restraining and assaulting a 71-year-old man, continued his relationship with Whittingham after he was transferred to a second prison in Derbyshire.

In December 2019, Whittingham led Seddon to freedom after the criminal escaped from prison by deceiving prison staff with a trap he had left in his cell.

Over the next six months, the Derbyshire Crown Court heard the former prison officer kept in touch with her lover, meeting him at hotels around England and paying for accommodation while on the run.

Police arrested Seddon in March 2020 after it was discovered that he had an affair with another woman in Bournemouth earlier that year.

A ‘difficult and sad’ case

Whittingham will now return to prison as a prisoner rather than an officer, having been imprisoned for three years after admitting to harboring a fugitive prisoner and misconduct in a public office.

Mark Sharman, Whittingham’s defense attorney, said she had been diagnosed with depression as a result of what happened.

“She was in love with this man,” he said. “It is true that history is full of foolish and extreme things that people do in the name of love.”

Registered Judge Balraj Bhatia QC described the case as “difficult and distressing”.

He added, “I agree that you may have been through hard times, your 11-year marriage has gone sour, and you may have been emotionally vulnerable, but you know what you were doing was wrong.

“The evidence shows that you were responsible for escorting him away from those places in time, knowing that he was a prisoner on the run.”

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