Introducing... Gangster Presents... Sex, Drugs & Cell Block Parties

Bad People

BBC

Society & Culture, True Crime, Unknown

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2025

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The story of the biggest prison smuggling plot ever busted in the UK - and the love story at the heart of it.

Journalist Amber Haque untangles what happens when mental health nurse Amy Hatfield meets convicted criminal Joe Whittingham. Her investigation leads into a world of blackmail and manipulation, where you never quite know who to trust or who's watching.

Credits Host: Amber Haque Producer: Becca Bryers Sound design: Ivor Manley and Andy Fell Story and music consultant: Emma Weatherill Development by: Rob Byrne, Rhiannon Nevada and Emma Shaw Production management: Gaelan Davis-Connolly and Debbie Wadell Executive producer: Joe Kent Commissioning producer: Sam Proffitt Commissioning executive: Louise Kattenhorn and Lorraine Okuefuna Commissioning editor: Richard Maddock A BBC Studios production for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:05.7	Hello there, bad people listeners.
0:08.1	This is Amber Hark.
0:09.9	I'm back to tell you about something that I have been working on
0:13.6	because it's something I think you might like.
0:16.4	Because you know me, I spend a lot of time trying to understand
0:19.6	why some people do bad things.
0:23.4	And that's what's drawn me to this story. The UK's biggest ever prison smuggling plot. A prison
0:32.1	in Yorkshire was flooded with more than a million pounds worth of drugs and it had devastating consequences.
0:40.3	But this story is also about a secret and dangerous affair and an addiction that gets out of control.
0:50.3	You can listen to the full series of Gangster Presents,
0:55.1	Sex, Drugs and Cell Block Parties presented by me on BBC Sounds.
1:01.3	Here's a little taster of what you'll hear.
1:06.6	It was nerve-wracking walking onto landings,
1:10.3	because obviously I've never been into that closed environment.
1:13.9	We're a bit intimidating, especially when they were all out
1:16.4	and I'm shouting stuff down landing.
1:18.9	Like what kind of things with the shout?
1:21.3	Miss get your tits out. Bend over, you've dropped your pen and stuff like that.
1:25.1	Oh God.
1:26.7	Prison might seem an unlikely setting for a love story,
1:30.6	but that is where Amy Hatfield meets Joe Whittingham.
	...

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