Linda De Sousa Abreu, who was formerly a prison officer in south London, has rejected accusations made by the burglar regarding the affair, claiming that she is ‘incredibly embarrassed’ by the relationship and denies the allegation that she was smuggling contraband to HMP Wandsworth.
Abreu, aged 32, was admitted to her misconduct in public office charges after confessing to having three sexual encounters with prisoner Linton Weirich during June 2024. It should be noted that one of the encounters was captured on film by another inmate, and the other one was caught on camera by Abreu herself. After receiving an early release sentence at HMP Bronzefield, Abreu decided to speak with The Sun in response to the allegations of Weirich.
The burglar claimed that Abreu had initiated the affair and provided outside food for the inmates at about £150 per order. Moreover, according to Weirich, Abreu had asked him for help with dealing with another inmate at HMP Wandsworth.
“She asked me to sort out an inmate who spat on her, so I did,” Weirich stated.
In addition, Weirich alleged that he had helped the prison officer to obtain a contraband phone for £1,500 and had been communicating with her using it. Moreover, it seems that Weirich could easily understand the officer’s intentions from the very beginning.
“It was obvious she liked me,” he explained. She “wanted someone to look out for her on the landing.”
However, Abreu dismissed the food-smuggling accusation and doubted the truthfulness of his phone-related claims because her phone had been taken by law enforcement authorities for more than a year.
“Everyone’s doing something. I regret everything I did. I’m incredibly embarrassed,” she said.
The officer admitted her inappropriate behavior and clearly defined what her crime consisted of.
“Everything that I was charged for was what I went guilty for, which was an inappropriate relationship with Linton. That was my fault, and that’s what I went guilty for, and that’s as far as it went,” she explained. “I had sex with someone I shouldn’t have had sex with, and I had an inappropriate relationship, but I didn’t do anything else.”
It appears that severe staffing shortages at HMP Wandsworth contributed to this situation, as Abreu noted that the prison was very understaffed and quite difficult to control.
According to Weirich, he had had sex with the prison officer a couple of times before the filmed encounter. In particular, the inmate said he did not consent to being filmed.
While some prisoners and even officers called him a ‘legend’ after the video became known throughout the Internet, Weirich confessed that it resulted in a complete disaster for him, his partner, and his family. In fact, it turned out that his pregnant partner learned about the affair from the video.
“It caused so much damage to my partner, my family, and myself,” Weirich said. He called it”the biggest regret of his life.”
Afterward, Weirich was assaulted by a fellow inmate while holding his three-month-old baby. The incident was confirmed by Kent Police Service, which also informed that the child had sustained a fracture of his skull.
Due to the scandal, De Sousa Abreu left her job at HMP Wandsworth after pleading guilty to the charges.
The former prison officer spent five months in jail at HMP Bronzefield after being sentenced to a total of 15 months under the United Kingdom’s early release rule.
