Prison governor jailed over relationship with drug boss

A prison governor was jailed for nine years yesterday after having a relationship with a Liverpool drug gang boss. Kerri Pegg, 42, swapped her Honda Jazz for a £12,000 Mercedes C class car, paid for by 34 kilos of amphetamines by Anthony Saunderson, a major organised crime boss, who is now serving 35 years behind bars.

- PAT HURST

Divorcee Pegg, described in court as “petite, blonde and bubbly”, signed off on temporary release for Saunderson while she was a governor at HMP Kirkham, Lancashire.

When anti-corruption police raided Pegg’s apartment they found expensive jewellery and designer clothes, along with size 10 Hugo Boss slip-ons and a toothbrush with Saunderson’s DNA.

Known to criminal associates as “Jesse Pinkman”, the drug dealer in Breaking Bad, or “James Gandolfini”, the actor who played lothario mafia boss Tony Soprano in the eponymous TV series, even members of his gang grumbled that their boss was spending too much time with Pegg, neglecting his wife and “work”.

Pegg, a keen gym-goer inside jail, was seen as a “rising star” in the Prison Service, climbing the career ladder from graduate entrant to prison governor in six years, along the way also having breast enhancement surgery.

During her trial at Preston Crown Court, it emerged that Saunderson had developed and delivered a programme titled BADD (Beating Alcohol and Drug Dependency) for inmates at several jails while at the time being a major drug dealer, running an amphetamines factory.

Pegg claimed her contact with Saunderson was due to his involvement in the BADD programme.

Pegg was convicted of two counts of misconduct in a public office and one count of possession of criminal property following a three-week trial last month.