Tuesday 27 September 2022 10:11 AM Ex-female prison officer, 55, who helped her murderer lover escape from open ... trends now
A former prison officer who formed a relationship with a convicted murderer before helping him escape an open prison has been spared jail.
Derby Crown Court heard how Jane Archer met her partner Stephen Archer - no relation - at the gates of HMP Sudbury - an open prison - and then drove him back to her home.
Although they were not married she had changed her surname to his and it understood the relationship began after she left the prison service.
The 55-year-old's sentencing hearing was told how the following day she drove him to the Folkestone and Dover area where he laid low for a number of days.
After he called her to come and get him, Archer then went back to the South East coast and picked him up.
But the pair were stopped by police as she travelled up the M6 towards Manchester and arrested.
Jane Archer, a former prison officer formed a relationship with convicted murderer Stephen Archer - no relation - and helped him escape from prison before taking him to her home
In her police interview, the defendant then gave what a judge called 'a cock and bull story' that the plan to escape from Derbyshire was 'nothing to do with her'.
Handing Jane Archer an 18-month jail term, suspended for 18 months, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: 'A number of years ago, in your capacity as a prison officer, you formed a relationship with a lifer, Stephen Archer, who was in prison for murder.
'The relationship carried on for a long time and in May 2019, he walked out of Sudbury and you know why as you had driven to pick him up.
'He remained at large for a number of days during which you were involved and you then gave the police a cock and bull story about your involvement.
'Helping somebody escape from prison, in whatever format, is a serious
