A prison governor described as a ‘rising star’ is facing her own jail sentence after being convicted of misconduct.
Kerri Pegg, 42, got into a relationship with Anthony Saunderson, who is currently serving a 35-year jail sentence for dealing drugs and running an amphetamines factory.
He bought her a £12,000 Mercedes during their relationship paid for with drug money – but she’s now been found guilty of two counts of misconduct in public office and one count of possession of criminal property.
She was found guilty by a jury who deliberated for two hours and 43 minutes following the three-week trial at Preston crown court.
Pegg, a divorcee, signed off on temporary release for Saunderson while she was governor at HMP Kirkham.
Saunderson was known to criminal associates as ‘Jesse Pinkman’, the drug dealer in Breaking Bad, or ‘James Gandolfini’, the actor who played Tony Soprano in the mafia TV series.
At one point one of Merseyside’s most wanted fugitives, at the time he met Pegg he was at the end of a 10-year sentence for his role in importing £19million of cocaine from Argentina.
They formed an intimate relationship and spent a lot of time alone together in her office.
He developed a programme titled BADD (Beating Alcohol and Drug Dependency) for inmates at several jails, despite being a major drug dealer – and Pegg claimed her contact with him was solely related to the programme.
But members of Saunderson’s gang complained he was spending too much time with Pegg and away from his wife and ‘work’ as a drug gang boss.
Pegg joined the prison service as a graduate entrant in 2012, working at a number of prisons before becoming governor at HMP Kirkham in 2018.
However, from the start of her time there, there were concerns about her being inappropriately close with Saunderson, spending time with him in her office with the door closed.
When Saunderson requested release on temporary licence, Pegg intervened and approved it without notifying the person who should have requested it.
When police raided her home in Orrell, Wigan, they found a toothbrush and a pair of flip flops with his DNA on it – and they found paperwork which showed she was the subject of a number of county court judgements for unpaid debts.
Those undeclared judgements amounted to misconduct because debts make officers vulnerable to corruption. Pegg also had four ‘maxed out’ credit cards and had just 6p in her savings account, the court heard.
Judge Graham Knowles told Pegg a prison term was ‘inevitable’, but bailed the defendant to the court building while a sentencing date was arranged either later on Tuesday or at a later date.
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