A PRISONER officer caught with an inmate’s sperm in her handbag planned to have a baby with him, a court heard.

Alison Sharples, 46, was ‘besotted’ with Marvin Berkeley, who was serving time at HMP Garth in Leyland.

She told her friend she had feelings for the lag and was jealous of his glamorous girlfriend DeeDee, who would visit the Category B prison in full make-up and stilettos.

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She said she and Berkeley planned to continue their romance when he was released on parole, six weeks after a syringe tainted with Berkeley’s semen was discovered in Sharples’ handbag during a routine search at the jail.

Sharples,of Hamilton Road, Chorley, denies misconduct in a public office.

Her friend Nicola Ball, who left the prison service after developing feelings for an inmate, told the jury she tried to warn Sharples off Berkeley, after her own relationship with a criminal had turned sour.

She said: “I tried to reiterate that the people they are on the inside isn’t the same person they are on the outside.”

The day after the syringe was seized, Sharples phoned her friend and told her a number of items had been found in her handbag.

Miss Ball said: “She was worried the police would test the contents of the syringe. She said her and Marvin had been talking about the possibility of having a baby. Marvin had been talking about having a chocolate baby with her, and so a syringe was used for that.”

Miss Ball told the court her friendship with Sharples broke down a few months after she was asked to give a statement to the police about what she knew.

She denied she had exaggerated her friend’s account.

(Proceeding)