The fantasy collapsed in a courtroom.
Isabelle Dale, a former prison officer at HMP Coldingley, has been sentenced to three and a half years in jail after carrying on intimate relationships with two inmates and conspiring to smuggle drug-soaked mail into prison. The case, heard at Southwark Crown Court, laid bare a breach of trust that Judge Christopher Hehir described as calculated and corrupt.
Dale, 23, began working at the Surrey prison in September 2021. Within months, she had formed a relationship with convicted robber Shahid Sharif. By May the pair were engaged. The court heard they had sex inside the prison, in the chapel area, while Sharif was serving a lengthy sentence for a violent jewellery robbery.
After Sharif was transferred to HMP Swaleside, Dale’s involvement deepened. She visited him repeatedly, concealing her role as a prison officer, and later conspired with Sharif and his associate, Lilea Sallis, to smuggle envelopes dipped in spice into the jail. The plan fell apart during a postal strike.
Judge Hehir was blunt. Dale, he said, was “thoroughly devious,” attention-seeking, and had likely joined the prison service with criminal intent. Claims of vulnerability, he ruled, did not excuse her actions.
Dale was also found to have shared sensitive information with another inmate, Connor Money, with whom she had a separate intimate relationship. She resigned before her arrest, by which time Sharif’s street name was tattooed on her neck.
Sharif and Sallis were also jailed for their roles in the conspiracy. What remains is a cautionary tale of blurred lines, broken rules, and the cost of mistaking infatuation for invincibility.
Last modified: January 23, 2026
