Inside ‘horrific’ prison life facing sex tape-shamed prison guard alongside Lucy Letby

A shamed prison guard, who was caught on camera having sex with an inmate, is reportedly now residing in the same wing as Lucy Letby.

Linda De Sousa Abreu was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment this week after being held accountable for a video filmed within HMP Wandsworth.

The mother from Fulham, South West London, admitted to misconduct in public office last year following her participation in sexual activity with burglar Linton Weirich inside his cell while another inmate recorded the act.

However, despite her previous role of enforcing rules upon inmates, the 30-year-old will now be one of them and is allegedly living alongside notorious killers in House Block 4 at HMP Bronzefield, Surrey.

Here, we delve deeper into the conditions of the wing and what awaits De Sousa Abreu.

HMP Bronzefield is the UK’s first purpose-built prison for women, which opened its doors in 2004.

It has housed infamous criminals such as Rose West and the most dangerous women are kept in what is known as H Block 4. The prison accommodates around 450 inmates and is divided into four house blocks, including a mother and baby unit.

However, those serving life sentences reside in H4 along with prisoners who have been moved there due to good behaviour, where they enjoy better facilities like an en-suite shower. This block is also used to segregate high-profile prisoners from the general population, reports the .

According to , baby killer Letby has formed a friendship with Sara Sharif’s murderous stepmother Beinash Batool in the infamous unit.

De Sousa Abreu has found herself in House Block 4 after being informed she’d serve half her sentence behind bars and the rest on licence. It’s a place all too familiar to ex-drug dealer Francesca Fattore, who earned her spot there due to good behaviour.

Despite perks like a private shower, she was housed with paedophiles, murderers, and notorious inmates such as Mairead Philpott and Joanna Dennehy. On her YouTube channel, Francesca didn’t mince words about the prison grub at Bronzefield: “In Bronzefield, it was horrific. The food was cr*p, the portion size was cr*p, you would be very lucky if you got extras.”

Inmates select their meals through an electronic pod, but Francesca bemoaned the meagre portions, saying she wouldn’t even serve them to her child.

However, not all was grim; she said: “Every Sunday we would get chocolate doughnuts. Everyone who knows me on the outside knows they are my favourites. By the end of the day I would have like eight chocolate doughnuts on a plate.”

“I would probably have five of them and I don’t know how I lost weight in prison, I definitely ate more inside than I do outside.”

Another former inmate reminisced about the porridge and hard-boiled eggs on Sundays at Bronzefield. As for life in House Block 4, Francesca recently admitted that while she doesn’t miss the “b*tchiness” of jail where “girls will stab you in the back”, it was part of the experience.

Francesca faced a daunting challenge at Bronzefield, sharing an adjoining cell with notorious inmates like Philpott, who killed her six children by setting her house ablaze.

Released in 2020 under a new identity after serving half of her sentence, Francesca found solace in the prison’s enhanced wing, which she described to the Daily Star as a “real privilege”, particularly appreciating the luxury of a private shower.

Yet the company she kept was troubling: “I remember being there and the girls were like ‘oh that girl is here for terrorism’ and ‘that old lady used to beat her kids and make them eat dinner off the floor’. Then I was like’ don’t tell me any more’ because I didn’t want to know. This wasn’t who I wanted to be around, I am not that person so I asked not to be told any more.”

Her approach soon changed as she realised knowledge was power: “I needed to know because then I won’t talk to the people I don’t need to. I would never kick off on the wing because in my head when I went to prison that was it for me, I was going to change so I had to behave.”

Determined to reform, she managed her anger and shock, especially when learning Mairead was her neighbour. She continued: “I had to take my feelings aside of what you would want to say, what you’d want to do to somebody and just be a better person. When I learned my next door neighbour was that woman (Mairead) you just start thinking, ‘wow I am in with some crazy, evil, nasty people’.”

Francesca, the founder of UkExFemalePrisoner aimed at aiding rehabilitated female offenders, expressed: “Literally you just have to think that if I am spoken to by then then just don’t speak back or keep it as minimum as possible. You have to switch off (from their crimes) because you have no choice.”

Furthermore, Francesca revealed her discomfort caused by fellow inmates and certain prison officers who sought to unsettle. She recounted: “And then I don’t also miss certain officers, there were a lot of good officers but there were certain officers that would play with you and provoke you and try and get you to blow up or snap. They would push your buttons just for their own benefit.”

Another former inmate, Emily Duff, who faced drug charges, was confined at HMP Bronzefield along with Shauna Hoare – notorious for abetting her boyfriend Nathan Matthews in the gruesome murder of 16 year old Becky Watts. Emily, who spent considerable time with Hoare undertaking hairdressing and beauty courses, described a disconcerting air about her.

Speaking to the , Emily said: “She was very calm, came across very timid and it was probably difficult to understand that she could have done something like that. But there was something about her that I just wasn’t quite sure of.

“I had this feeling, I don’t know whether it’s because in the back of my head I knew what she had been a part of, but there was an aura she gave off. She could be chatty but not overly and she never got overly friendly with lots of people.”

Hoare, who was recently released on licence, reportedly spent “hours playing board games” and doing karaoke with the unit’s most notorious inmate – Lucy Letby, according to a source cited by the Mirror.