Woman charged after viral Wandsworth Prison video shows ‘officer having sex with prisoner’

A woman has been charged in connection with a video shared on social media that allegedly shows a prison officer having sex with an inmate in his cell.

Linda De Sousa Abreu, 30, from Fulham, southwest London, was charged with abuse of power in public office, the Metropolitan Police said.

She remains in custody and will appear at Uxbridge District Court on Monday.

A police investigation was launched on Friday after officers received information about a video which was allegedly filmed at HMP Wandsworth.

The arrest was made the same day, and De Sousa Abreu was charged on Saturday, police added.

In a statement, a Met Police spokesman said: “A police investigation was launched on June 28 after officers received information about a video filmed at HMP Wandsworth.

“Later that day, a woman was arrested on charges of misconduct in public office.”

Last year, HMP Wandsworth prison hit the headlines following a nationwide manhunt for prisoner Daniel Khalife in September 2023.

The 22-year-old former Royal Signals member allegedly strapped himself to the underside of a food van before being arrested four days later in Chiswick after being pulled off his bike by a plainclothes counter-terrorism officer.

Khalife is due to face trial at the Old Bailey in October after he pleaded not guilty to escaping from HMP Wandsworth prison.

He also pleaded not guilty to three other charges, concerning alleged breaches of the Terrorism Act, the Criminal Law Act and the Official Secrets Act.

These include allegations, respectively, that in August 2021 he obtained or attempted to obtain information that could be useful to a potential terrorist, and that he placed “three canisters of wires on a desk in his apartment” to raise fears that it was “likely to explode or lights up” by January 2, 2023.

Both incidents are believed to have occurred at Beacon Barracks in Staffordshire.

In the fourth charge, he is accused of obtaining, collecting, recording, publishing or transmitting information likely to be useful to the enemy between May 2019 and January 2022.

The hearing, which will take place in October, is expected to last eight weeks.