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A prison guard accused of accepting a bribe of sex with a member of the public, allegedly arranged by a prisoner in exchange for bringing contraband into Rimutaka Prison, is one of five charged with corruption today.��

Two former��Corrections��officers, one prisoner, a woman and a current Corrections officer were all set to appear in the Hutt Valley��District Court��today.��

All are charged with corruptly giving a bribe, accepting a bribe, or being party to a bribe of an official.��

It is not clear which of the defendants are former Corrections officers and which is the current officer.��

The charges come after a��three-year police investigation into corruption at Rimutaka Prison, dubbed Operation Portia. Police spoke to more than 200 people as part of the investigation.��

According to charging documents, one of the prison guards is accused of accepting a bribe of sex with the woman outside the wire, arranged by a prisoner. In exchange, he allegedly brought contraband on to the��prison grounds.��

He was remanded on bail and ordered to surrender his passport. He was granted interim name suppression.��

The woman accused of having sex with the man twice is also facing two charges of being party to the bribe. She is Jacinta Cherry, 37, a hospitality worker from Wainuiomata.��

She failed to appear in court today and a warrant was issued for her arrest. An application for name suppression put forward by her lawyer was declined, because she didn’t show up.��

The prisoner accused of arranging the encounter is also charged with being party to the bribe. Court documents record his address as Paremoremo Prison in Auckland.��

One officer is accused of taking bribes as small as $150. Photo / ��һ�ǿ�������

Another Corrections officer is accused of accepting five bribes, one as little as $150, to bring contraband on prison grounds, while another is accused of accepting three bribes over $1000 to bring contraband onto prison grounds.��

Both were bailed to Wellington addresses and granted interim name suppression.��

A number of the alleged offences are supposed to have occurred during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.��

The charges are rare and required approval from the Attorney-General before they could be laid.��

As part of Operation Portia police spoke to witnesses, employees of the Department of Corrections and prisoners.��

Techniques used in the inquiry included combing through hours of CCTV footage, bank records and phone interrogations, according to a police spokesperson.��

“Police have worked closely and collaboratively with Corrections management and both organisations are committed to working towards preventing corruption and other criminal offending,” the spokesperson said.��

“Police have also been able to provide information to Corrections that has supported the prison to strengthen its management of some systems and processes.��

“This has been an incredibly complex and dynamic investigation with a lot of moving parts.”��

Ethan Griffiths covers crime and justice stories nationwide for Open Justice. He joined ��һ�ǿ����� in 2020, previously working as a regional reporter in Whanganui and South Taranaki.��