Prison guard is jailed after 'being manipulated' to smuggle in drugs for her inmate boyfriend

• Female prison officer caught twice trying to smuggle drugs 
• Her inmate boyfriend was a ‘bad influence’, the court heard 
• READ MORE: Prison officer Lisa Brown recalls the day nurse-killer Vester Fernando tried to stab to death a fellow inmate

A female prison officer was jailed for 11 months after twice being caught trying to smuggle drugs to her ‘bad influence’ boyfriend in jail.

Kassan Twitchin, 19, first tried to smuggle cannabis into the privately run Clarence Correctional Centre, 130kms north-west of Sydney, on October 15, 2023.

She had started working there when she was 18 and was bringing the drugs in for Zachary Ashcroft, who she was in an ‘unsavoury relationship’ with.

But Twitchin was caught, her employer Serco fired her and she was charged with possessing a prohibited drug and bringing a prohibited drug/plant into place of detention.

Just over a month later, she was caught trying to smuggle a prescription opioid medicine known as ‘bupe strips’ into the prison, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Prison officer Kassan Twitchin (pictured), 19, was jailed after twice being caught trying to smuggle drugs to her ‘bad influence’ inmate boyfriend

READ MORE: A rare look inside the prison where Australia’s worst murderers, rapists and gangsters spend their days – as jailers speak frankly about how they keep control 

Twitchin was again caught, charged, and pleaded guilty to the charges of ‘bring listed/scheduled poison into place of detention and possess/attempt to, prescribed restricted substance’.

On January 9, she was jailed for a minimum of 11-months in a local court.

Due to being a former prison guard, when she was sent to Silverwater Correctional Centre in Sydney, Twitchin was held in protective custody and locked alone in her cell for the majority of the time.

She appealed her sentence on the basis of her protective custody conditions being ‘particularly onerous’.

On January 30, her case was heard in the NSW District Court and Judge Robert Newlinds found Twitchin had been manipulated by Ashcroft.

The teenager’s family told the court they ‘hated’ him.

‘Mr Ashcroft has been, to say the least, a very bad influence on the offender,’ Mr Newlinds said.

‘It seems clear enough to me that he had some sort of psychological hold over the offender because of their relationship and convinced her that it was a good idea for her to do what she did.

‘(The drug offences were done) in a very unsophisticated and I think amateurish way, attempting unsuccessfully on both occasions to smuggle the drugs into jail.’

Judge Newlinds re-sentenced Twitchin, ordering her to serve an intensive corrections order in the community for one year and not to contact Ashcroft.

Twitchin, who has an OnlyFans channel, has posted about her inmate boyfriend, saying she ‘can’t wait’ until he is released in a few weeks’ time.

‘I love and miss you my love,’ she said.

‘Not being able to talk to you is absolutely heart shattering and it’s breaking me.’

Twitchin first tried to smuggle cannabis into the privately run Clarence Correctional Centre (pictured), 130kilometres north-west of Sydney, on October 15, 2023

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