Prison governor jailed over relationship with drug boss

A former prison governor seen as a rising star in the service has been jailed for nine years for having a relationship with an inmate who was the boss of a Liverpool drugs gang, police have said.

Kerri Pegg, 42, was the governor of HMP Kirkham in Lancashire when she met Anthony Saunderson - also known as Jesse Pinkman, named after the drug dealer in the Breaking Bad TV drama - who is now serving 35 years behind bars. Pegg, who had risen from graduate entrant to governor in six years, granted Saunderson a temporary release, even though she was not authorised to do so, the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU) said.

Concerns about their relationship began soon after she started work at the jail, with the two often being in her office with the door closed, Preston Crown Court heard. She had swapped her Honda Jazz for a £12,000 Mercedes, which Saunderson had bought with 34kg (75lbs) of amphetamines, and which was outside her flat in Orrell, Wigan, when police raided it in November 2020.

Designer clothes, handbags and jewellery, were found by detectives, along with size 10 Hugo Boss slip-ons and a toothbrush with Saunderson's DNA. Investigators discovered she had been living way beyond her £3,000 a month income, buying Jimmy Choo shoes and Chanel necklaces despite being deep in debt.

Pegg tearfully told jurors she had been "incredibly stupid" but did not think she had done anything wrong. Barbara-Louise Webster, prosecuting, said Pegg had a promising future, but Saunderson "was her downfall".

The pair met through an inmate programme called BADD (Beating Alcohol and Drug Dependency), which Saunderson developed and delivered at several jails, even while he was himself running an amphetamines factory. Pegg, who was convicted of misconduct in a public office and possessing criminal property at trial last month, claimed her contact with Saunderson was down to the programme.

The court heard Pegg, originally from Bramhall, Stockport, was a governor at HMP Kirkham by 2018, as Saunderson was reaching the end of a 10-year sentence for drug offences. He had been one of Merseyside's most wanted fugitives for his part in importing £19m worth of cocaine in shipments of corned beef from Argentina.

Less than two months after being released from Kirkham in May 2019, he was involved in another massive drug conspiracy. Saunderson was jailed for 35 years at Liverpool Crown Court in August 2022 after investigators cracked the Encrochat system - the phone network used by serious organised criminals.

It revealed both his drug dealing and his relationship with Pegg. Read more on Sky News:Firefighters die in airbase blazeBest-selling author's attacker jailed'Brazen' carnival murderer jailed 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." Detective Inspector Brian Morley, from the NWROCU's Prison Intelligence Unit, said Pegg was guilty of "serious misconduct.