Breaking Bad starred Bryan Cranston as Walter White (left) and Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman (right). Saunderson allegedly used the name Jesse Pinkman, a meth dealer in the TV show
But from the start of her time at the jail there were concerns about Pegg being inappropriately close to prisoners, her trial heard.
Pegg – who joined the Prison Service as a graduate trainee – had breast enhancement surgery during a previous posting – and admitted having ‘a habit of spending’.
But she maintained throughout her three-week trial that she hadn’t had a relationship with Saunderson and insisted he had never visited her apartment.
Her barrister said she was ‘green and stupid’ but had led a blameless life, being duped by a ‘sophisticated’ and ‘odious’ criminal into putting ‘prisoners’ rights above principles and common sense’.
But the prosecution argued that the DNA evidence was ‘telling’ proof she had been in a relationship with Saunderson, saying she must have known he had funded the purchase of the Mercedes.
After her conviction, prosecutors said they suspected her relationship with Saunderson dated back to when she was a governor at his prison.
Tarryn McCaffrey, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘She was clearly involved in an inappropriate relationship with Saunderson after he was released and the evidence points to this going back further, to a time when he was in jail.’
Pegg, who admitted a liking for designer clothes and handbags, was living beyond her means which had made her vulnerable to exploitation, her trial at Preston Crown Court heard.
‘Kerri Pegg had a promising future until she started to play outside the rules,’ prosecutor Barbara-Louise Webster told the jury in her closing speech.
‘Anthony Saunderson was her downfall.’
Once considered a ‘rising star’ in the Prison Service, former graduate entrant Kerri Pegg, 42, who gave no reaction as jurors found her guilty of misconduct in a public office and possession of criminal property with Judge Graham Knowles telling her a prison term was ‘inevitable’
Pegg joined the Prison Service in 2012 as a graduate entrant, working at jails including Risley, Liverpool and Styal.
By April 2018 she was a governor at HMP Kirkham in Lancashire, where Saunderson was reaching the end of a lengthy sentence for drugs offences.
It was noted she spent a lot of time in her office with Saunderson and in October 2018, he put in a request to be released on temporary licence.
Pegg approved his release – despite not having authority to do so and without notifying the official who should have dealt with it, the trial heard.
Days later she was moved to another jail, later becoming duty governor at HMP Lancaster Farms.
Saunderson was finally released in May 2019 and in the following year used an Encrochat encrypted mobile phone, used by serious, organised criminals to send messages and secretly communicate.
When the system was cracked by law enforcement agencies it showed Saunderson was involved in massive drug trafficking.
He has since been convicted of producing and distributing amphetamine on an ‘industrial scale’.
But other messages also showed the ‘ongoing nature’ of his relationship with Pegg, the court heard.
On April 6, 2020, Saunderson was sent a message on Encrochat saying ‘car her for ya bird 12 quid or work’ and a photo of the black Mercedes coupe.
The ’12 quid’ meant £12,000 and ‘work’ meant drugs, jurors heard.
Saunderson asked ‘what work they want’ and he was told ‘top or weed’ – that is, cocaine or cannabis.
Two days later Saunderson arranged for ’17 packs’ to be dropped off in Manchester to pay for the car, it is alleged.
The Mercedes was then registered to Pegg at her home on April 11, 2020 and a message to Saunderson from a friend read: ‘Where u ya seedy man u and Peggy out floating orrel in the new whip?’
Pegg was arrested at her home on November 19, 2020, with police finding expensive items of designer clothes.
Paperwork seized showed she was the subject of a number of county court judgements for unpaid debts.
Pegg later resigned from the Prison Service and is now operations director and deputy chief executive of homelessness charity, The Brick, in Wigan.
Giving evidence Pegg denied that she had faked documents such as receipts for monthly repayments of £360 and a £500 deposit to ‘cover up’ how she had acquired the Mercedes.
She had also refused to answer questions about a ‘burner’ phone in her flat which she had bought to talk to Saunderson.
Pegg admitted she had a liking for ‘hairstyle and beauty products’, saying: ‘I did have a habit of spending.’
But she denied accruing ‘a significant debt’.
In his closing speech to the jury yesterday, Andrew Alty, defending, said Pegg was ‘green and stupid’ but had led a blameless life.
He told them: ‘You are also entitled to take into account Saunderson and his character, who I suggest is a manipulative and dishonest person who has fooled many people along the way before he ended up back in prison.
‘I suggest Kerri Pegg is one of those. She has been manipulated by a far more sophisticated, odious individual, Anthony Saunderson.’
But Ms Webster told jurors: ‘They were in a relationship. The mix of DNA, both hers and his on the flip flops and the tooth brush are very telling.
‘They must have spent considerable time together and she must have suspected that vehicle was from criminal conduct.’
Refusing an application for bail from her barrister today, Judge Knowles said: ‘Kerri Pegg, on the jury’s findings, had a relationship with a man who was a drug dealer before she knew him and was a drug dealer when she was in a relationship with him.
‘He is likely to have made a substantial income from that.
‘It follows that the jury found that she had lied to avoid the consequences of her actions over a sustained period of time.’
After the verdicts, charity The Brick released a statement saying it had decided to allow Pegg to carry on working ‘under substantial restrictions’ after being notified of her arrest in 2023.
It added that it was ‘deeply shocked and saddened by today’s verdict’.
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