A prison governor has herself been jailed after she signed off the temporary release of a drug gang boss she began a relationship with. Kerri Pegg was described as a rising star in the Prison Service after quickly climbing the career ladder from graduate entrant to prison governor in just six years.
She was found guilty of misconduct in a public office, after releasing major organised crime boss, Anthony Saunderson, when she was governor at HMP Kirkham. The court heard the 42-year-old avid gym-goer had swapped her Honda Jazz for a £12,000 Mercedes C class car which had been paid for by 34 kilos of amphetamines.
Sentencing her to nine years at Preston Crown Court, Judge Graham Knowles KC told her: “You betrayed the public trust in you and you betrayed the Prison Service.” He continued: “It was shocking and unconscionable that you should have had that relationship.
“You knew how you should and should not act. You had training and support. You were warned and you were challenged. The boundaries were clear and explicit and you knew you were crossing them.”
Saunderson was known to criminal associates as “Jesse Pinkman”, the drug dealer in Breaking Bad, or “James Gandolfini”, the actor who played Tony Soprano in the mafia TV series. He had developed and delivered a programme titled BADD – Beating Alcohol and Drug Dependency – for inmates at several jails, while at the time being a major drug dealer, running an amphetamines factory.
During her trial at Preston Crown Court, divorcee Pegg claimed her contact with Saunderson was due to his involvement in the BADD programme. But even members of his gang grumbled that their boss was spending too much time with her and away from his wife and “work”.
The court heard Pegg, originally from Bramhall, Stockport, had worked in the Probation Service for eight years. She had been married at 26, but divorced four years later after her husband’s building and renovations firm went bust, when she switched to the Prison Service for a new challenge.
Pegg joined in 2012 as a graduate entrant, working at prisons including Risley, Liverpool and Styal, and by April 2018 she was a governor at HMP Kirkham, where Saunderson was reaching the end of 10-year sentence for drugs offences.
He had been one of Merseyside’s most wanted fugitives for his part in importing £19 million of cocaine in shipments of corned beef from Argentina. From the start of her time at the jail there were concerns about Pegg being inappropriately close to Saunderson, with the two often being in her office with the door closed.
She told jurors there were “cultural issues” at the jail and she clashed with bosses over her “progressive” and “hands-on” open-door policy with prisoners. In October 2018, Saunderson put in a release on temporary licence (ROTL) request which Pegg signed off, though she did not have the authority to do so.
Saunderson was released from Kirkham in May 2019 and within two months, while still on licence, was involved in another massive drug conspiracy. Saunderson and his gang were producing and supplying drugs on an industrial scale from a lab at a premises on the England/Wales border and a storage unit in Aintree, Merseyside.
He was jailed for 35 years at Liverpool Crown Court in August 2022 after law enforcement agencies cracked the Encrochat system, the phone network used by serious organised criminals.
The conversations on the Encrochat system also revealed Saunderson’s drug dealing and his relationship with Pegg. Police raided her apartment in Orrell, Wigan, in November 2020. The Mercedes paid for by Saunderson was parked outside.
They discovered designer clothes, handbags and jewellery, and found Pegg living way beyond her means, buying Jimmy Choo shoes and Chanel necklaces.
Detectives discovered that despite her £3,000 a month income, Pegg was deep in debt and had not declared three County Court judgments which amounted to misconduct, as debts make officials vulnerable to corruption.
In court, she tearfully claimed that while she had been “hands-on” and “stupid” in her professional interactions with Saunderson – but claimed she had done nothing wrong. The prosecution said she spent more and more time with the drugs boss as he came towards the end of his 10-year sentence.
The court was shown some size 10 Hugo Boss flip-flops that had been found in her Wigan apartment, as well as a toothbrush, designer clothes, shoes and jewellery. Saunderson’s DNA was found on the toothbrush and the flip-flops.
Her four credit cards were “maxed out” and she had 6p in her savings account. Detectives also found a toothbrush and a pair of Hugo Boss flip flops both carrying Saunderson’s DNA.
She was convicted of two counts of misconduct in a public office and one count of possession of criminal property. The jury was out for two hours and 43 minutes after a three-week trial.
After being found guilty of two counts of misconduct in a public office and one count of possession of criminal property, Judge Graham Knowles KC told her: “I have no choice but to send you to prison due to the gravity of your offending.”
After the sentencing, Detective Inspector Brian Morley, from the NWROCU’s Prison Intelligence Unit, said: “KerriPegg was a senior figure within the Prison Service, a public servant expected to behave to the highest standards but this was serious misconduct on her part and greatly undermines the trust given to prison staff and order in a prison.”
Phil Copple, chief executive of HM Prison and Probation Service, said: “The criminal misconduct in this case lets down the public we serve as well as the vast majority of honest and hardworking prison staff, but it also demonstrates our determination to take robust action against those who fail to achieve proper professional standards.”
Mark Fairhurst, head of the Prisons Officers’ Association, said: “I actually know Kerri Pegg because she was a Governor in Liverpool where I work and it’s clear to me she hasn’t got the strength of character to say no to prisoners.
“She was constantly undermining staff decisions and now it’s been proven that she’s corrupt – so that doesn’t surprise me.I think this is the case of a bad apple who doesn’t have the strength of character to hold the position of Governor and has succumbed to a criminal.”