Story By: Ernest Bio Bogore, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

A female prison warden has been jailed for six months after she fell in love with a convicted rapist and then started helping him to traffic phones inside and move money around.

According to local media, the 41-year-old prison warden, identified as Audrey, was so much in love with the Algerian convict that she even converted to Islam and dumped her husband for him.

News of what she did stunned colleagues who noted that she had over 17 years of experience and had been based at the Detention Centre of Argentan, located in the commune of Argentan in the north-western French department of Orne, for several years.

Prosecutor Hugues de Phily said: “She is a very cheerful, very fulfilled woman who dyes her hair and likes makeup.

“She established a continually closer relationship with the prisoner and ended up falling in love with him.

“A prison guard who compromises themselves with an inmate is very unusual.”

Elodie Sylla, a Force Ouvriere (FO) union delegate at Argentan prison, said: “We are all shocked, we didn’t expect it at all.”

According to local media, Audrey fell in love with 37-year-old Mohamed, a convicted rapist from Algeria.

Mohamed asked the female warden to provide him with mobile phones to carrying out trafficking activities.

In court, Audrey said: “He told me he missed me. He was thoughtful, kind… On 13th September he told me that he loved me.”

The prosecutor said that the inmate soon had total control of the warden, adding that “she was deprived of sleep” because “he was constantly making demands via his phone and an earpiece [she wore]”.

According to local media, Audrey was soon transporting large sums of money for Mohamed and even converted to Islam.

Hugues de Phily added: “She also adopted a diet specific to Islam which she also imposed on her children.”

She reportedly left her husband, stopped dying her hair and exercising, and withdrew from socially interacting with others, which first aroused suspicion among her prison colleagues.

During a cell search, officials found all of Mohamed’s phones with the warden’s number on them.

Audrey was immediately taken into police custody where she confessed to everything and expressed her regret, according to local media.

She has been sentenced to six months in prison and is currently incarcerated in solitary confinement at Nantes Detention Centre.

Meanwhile, Mohamed reportedly had two further years added to his sentence and he has since been transferred to another prison.

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