Jahvine Kwamba was jailed for eight months after admitting misconduct linked to a relationship with Roberts Sokolovs, in a case that reached sentence on Friday. The court heard that believe that included explicit photos and messages sent between them, alongside payments and repeated contact over Snapchat.
Kwamba admitted two counts of misconduct in judicial or public office in March, and also admitted a charge of transmitting an image and sound from prison without authority. Judge Timothy Spencer KC sentenced her at Leicester Crown Court after hearing the case involved HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire and contact that continued after Sokolovs left the jail.
HMP Fosse Way contact
Prosecutor Rawaid Javed said sexually explicit photographs and messages were sent between Kwamba and Sokolovs on Snapchat after Sokolovs was sent to an immigration removal centre at Gatwick Airport in June 2024. Javed also said there were 5,441 contacts with each other on Snapchat while Sokolovs was at HMP Fosse Way, and 4,211 contacts while he was at the removal centre.
The sentencing hearing also set out that Kwamba was working at HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire when she began a relationship with Sokolovs in 2024. Sam Ponniah said she showed “significant levels of naivety and immaturity” and was “well in over her head” when she was put in charge of 64 prisoners despite being a prison officer for about four months.
Payments linked to Roberts Sokolovs
Javed said the relationship was not limited to messages. Kwamba received five payments from Zita Sokolova totaling £1,495 between 18 March and 2 July 2024, received 18 payments totaling £4,665 from Venera Sokolova between 18 March and 2 July 2024, and sent seven payments totaling £660 to Venera Sokolova between 27 March and 1 July 2024.
Venera Sokolova was in contact with her brother 191 times while he was in prison, and Zita Sokolova was in contact with her son 33 times while he was in prison. Sokolovs had been imprisoned for drug-related matters in 2022 because of his involvement in a county lines drug ring called the Jimmy Line.
Timothy Spencer KC sentencing
Judge Timothy Spencer KC said he suspected Kwamba was “pretty lonely and vulnerable” and told her, “you were easy prey” for Sokolovs. Kwamba denies any physical sexual contact between her and Sokolovs, while Javed said he was sceptical about that claim.
Sokolovs was deported to Latvia in November 2024, and he was never interviewed about the relationship because he had been deported to Latvia. The prison officer’s sentence closes the immediate court phase in the case, leaving the record fixed to the misconduct plea, the Snapchat contact counts, and the payments that prosecutors tied to the relationship.
