A prison officer who had an affair with a convicted double murderer has been jailed.

Lauren McIntyre, 32, engaged in a sexual relationship behind bars with a man serving life for the brutal killings of his former girlfriend and their baby daughter.

Her fling with Andrew Roberts, who was jailed in 2003, took place in 2018 when he was serving time in a prison on the Isle of Wight, a court heard.

McIntyre also provided Roberts with the personal mobile number of another prison officer with whom she had had an affair.

She knew Roberts intended to assault her colleague and failed to raise the alarm, meaning that they “fell into a trap” and received significant head injuries at the hands of Roberts, a court heard.

Mother-of-three McIntyre, of St John’s Wood Road in Ryde on the Isle of Wight, pleaded guilty to four charges of misconduct in a public office.

She appeared at Isle of Wight Crown Court on Thursday and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Texts read out in court painted a picture of McIntyre’s “passionate” affair with Roberts behind bars.

On November 15, 2018 the convicted killer sent her a message saying: “Today was really hot and risky but I am so needing it right now.”

She replied: “So f****** risky I like it though”.

A few days later on November 18, McIntyre messaged Roberts: “I have had hands on you so I guess it’s time you got hands on me.”

Later the same day she told him: “I still keep remembering the first time you kissed me.”

The court was told of a plan was hatched to plant a mobile phone on another prisoner with McIntyre’s fellow prison officer’s phone number on it in an effort to frame them, a number which she provided.

Defence barrister Briony Molyneux said McIntyre was initially trying an “intelligence gathering operation”.

She described Roberts as a “highly manipulative, unpleasant, controlling individual”.

Ms Molyneux told the court: “The defendant was extremely naive in her actions and was drawn into Mr Roberts’ world.”

She said McIntyre made no financial gain from her relationship with Roberts and that there was evidence she told him the other prison officer could not be assaulted.

She cited her clients previous good character, guilty pleas and the fact she is mother to three small children as factors that should merit her a suspended sentence.

Judge Roger Hetherington told McIntyre: “Even if you initially gained his confidence as a means of exploring other corruption in the prison you quickly moved on to having a close relationship with him and in that relationship you passed on intelligence information to him and at the same time there developed a passionate sexual relationship.

“The effect of this sort of misconduct obviously is to undermine the safety and integrity of the prison service.

“It has a corrosive effect on everyone within the prison system and reduces the service in the estimation of the public whose support is so much needed if the public is to have confidence in the criminal justice system.

“You had no regard for that, only for your own selfish interests.”

Roberts, then-22, of Tylerstown, in the Rhondda Valley, was given two life sentences in September 2003 for the murders of Louise L’Homme, 23, and 10-month-old Tia Roberts.

He strangled both while high on a cocktail of drink and drugs – and then carried on partying at the couple’s South Wales home, Swansea Crown Court heard.