A kitchen worker at a women’s prison sparked a major security alert after taking an inmate with him to pick tomatoes at the men’s jail next door.

Security guards ‘didn’t bat an eyelid’ when the pair strolled out of the gates at HMP Downview in Surrey, a source said.

Prison officers arriving for their shifts were stunned to see the inmate had been mistakenly let out and she was rushed back inside and placed into segregation before being moved to another jail.

Downview went into a full lockdown over the breach and the governors were summoned, with two members of staff later suspended.

Vanessa Frake-Harris MBE, former Head of Security at Wormwood Scrubs, told the Daily Mail the security lapse was ‘unbelievable’.

She said the incident ‘is a sad reflection on our beleaguered prison service

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