A prison tutor’s affair with an inmate was rumbled when another member of staff tried to enter their classroom only to find it locked from the inside.

Melissa Murphy’s letters to the prisoner along with a photo of him she kept in her bedroom were found when police searched her home in Chelmsford, Essex.

Murphy, formerly Melissa O’Brien, had worked at HMP Chelmsford for four years.

The 48-year-old first met the inmate in the summer of 2023 and claimed she received the first letter from the prisoner in November the same year.

Instead of reporting the contact, Murphy replied and the two exchanged several letters suggesting they had begun a relationship, police said.

Concerns were raised when another member of prison staff tried to enter a classroom that just Murphy and the prisoner were

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