A 21-year-old prison officer from Doncaster has been jailed for eight months after sending sexually explicit photographs to a drug dealer imprisoned at HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire.

Jahvine Kwamba, of Old Hall Crescent, Bentley, Doncaster, pleaded guilty in March to two counts of misconduct in judicial or public office and a charge of transmitting an image and sound from prison without authority. She was sentenced on Friday at Leicester Crown Court.

The relationship

Kwamba began a relationship with prisoner Roberts Sokolovs in 2024 while working at HMP Fosse Way. Sokolovs had styled himself as the "Latvian Pablo Escobar" and was imprisoned for drug-related matters in 2022 due to his involvement in a county lines drug ring called the Jimmy Line, which operated between Skelmersdale in Lancashire and Lincoln.

Sexually explicit photographs and messages were sent between the pair on Snapchat after Sokolovs was transferred to an immigration removal centre at Gatwick Airport in June 2024.

While Kwamba was at HMP Fosse Way, there were 5,441 contacts with Sokolovs on Snapchat. After his transfer to the removal centre, there were 4,211 contacts between them. Sokolovs was deported to Latvia in November 2024 and was never interviewed about his relationship with Kwamba.

Kwamba denies there was any physical sexual contact between the pair, which prosecutor Rawaid Javed said he was "sceptical" about.

Financial transactions

Kwamba received five payments from Sokolovs's mother Zita Sokolova, 53, totalling £1,495 between 18 March and 2 July 2024. She also received 18 payments totalling £4,665 from his 20-year-old sister Venera Sokolova in the same period.

Kwamba sent seven payments, totalling £660, to Sokolova's sister between 27 March and 1 July 2024. When she first received a payment of £500 from Zita Sokolova in March 2024, she spent it on food and clothing and did not transfer it.

Sentencing remarks

Judge Timothy Spencer KC said he suspected Kwamba was "pretty lonely and vulnerable", adding "you were easy prey" for Sokolovs.

Defence counsel Sam Ponniah said Kwamba, who was 19 at the time of the offences, had shown "significant levels of naivety and immaturity". He noted she had been "well in over her head" when she was put in charge of 64 prisoners despite being a prison officer for only about four months.

Ponniah added that Kwamba had been living away from home in an unfamiliar area when she began the job.