Ex-female prison nurse, 55, who helped her murderer lover escape from open prison is struck off after being spared jail sentence
- UK nursing regulator found she had undermined public confidence in nurses
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An ex-prison nurse who helped her murderer lover escape from custody has been struck off.
Mental health nurse Jane Archer was barred by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) at a fitness to practise hearing last month.
Ms Archer, 55, was sanctioned for her role in aiding convicted murderer Stephen Archer, of no relation, in his escape from an open prison in Derbyshire in May 2019.
Archer, who had at that point spent about three decades in custody, was being kept at HMP Sudbury and got into Ms Archer’s waiting car at the facility’s gates where he was driven to her home in the Rotherham area.
Ms Archer was spared jail for her role in the incident, being only handed an 18-month jail term, suspended for 18 months last year.
Jane Archer, a former prison officer formed a relationship with convicted murderer Stephen Archer – no relation – and helped him escape from prison before taking him to her home
But she has now been barred from working as nurse.
During the NMC proceedings, Ms Archer said she had no intention of helping Archer, referred to as Prisoner A in documentation, escape.
Instead she claimed she would regularly go to the prison in her car and sit outside when he was ‘distressed’, believing he was ‘reassured’ by her presence
Ms Archer added that, at the time of the escape, she did not expect him to get in the vehicle.
Ms Archer then drove the prisoner to her home, helped him visit shops and bought a mobile phone for him before dropping him off in Dover where he laid low for a number of days.
Stephen Archer was jailed for life for murder and met Jane while serving at HMP Ranby
She then returned and picked him up, but the pair were stopped by police as they travelled up the M6 towards Manchester and arrested.
Ms Archer had previously worked at Rampton Hospital, a high security psychiatric hospital in Nottinghamshire, a fact the NMC argued meant she had knowledge of both the prison and mental health system in the UK.
The NMC, who argued that Ms Archer should be struck off to the independent fitness to practise committee, said this was an aggravating factor in the case given the prisoner in question was in custody for the ‘most serious offence of murder’.
They argued that Ms Archer’s conduct had raised ‘fundamental questions’ about her professionalism and integrity, which could undermine public confidence in the nursing profession.
In her submission, Ms Archer said she had never been a prison officer, but rather a mental health nurse who worked with patients in the prison system and added that Mr Archer had never been her patient.
She added that she had no idea where Mr Archer went while he was in Dover until he called her and said he needed to return to prison.
Ms Archer also maintained the plan was for her lover to hand himself in Manchester with the hope he would be re-imprisoned there, closer to his family.
She told the NMC she made the judgement call to assist him with the plan as the alternative was ‘allowing him to remain on the street where he might harm others’.
Mr Archer was in custody at HMP Sudbury in 2019 before his escape
Ms Archer added that she also returned to Dover to help him as she knew he ‘had a temper’ which had previously led him to murder someone and would rather put herself at risk than a member of the public.
She said that she ‘wished it had never happened and would not do it again’ but added that her patients had always been her top priority.
Ms Archer also said that she loved her job and wished to continue working as a nurse at Alexandra Care Home, a chain of care homes in the South West of England, where she was working before the NMC issued a temporary suspension during her case.
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She added that ‘a mistake does not make someone a bad person’.
However, the NMC argued that her act of assisting the escape of a prisoner she knew to be dangerous could have harmed members of the public and had the potential to ‘seriously undermine public confidence in nurses’.
The fitness to practise panel agreed: ‘The danger Prisoner A posed to the public if he escaped from custody would have been clear to you, based on your experience of working in a secure facility and your knowledge of the nature of Prisoner A’s offending.’
Additionally, the panel noted that although Ms Archer had expressed regret for her actions this appeared to be centred on the impact these had on her own employment, rather than other people.
‘Accordingly, the panel is not satisfied that you have remediated your conduct. It is of the view that there is a real risk of repetition,’ they added.
Determining that Ms Archer’s fitness to practise as a nurse was impaired, they handed down the most serious sanction, for her to be struck off from the nursing register, effectively barring her from working as a nurse.
‘The panel considered that this order was necessary to mark the importance of maintaining public confidence in the profession, and to send to the public and the profession a clear message about the standard of behaviour required of a registered nurse.’
During proceedings in September last year, it was heard how Mr Archer met Ms Archer, who was then a prison officer, while he was serving at HMP Ranby.
The pair did not begin a relationship until after she left the prison service, but they were together for 14 years and although not married she changed her surname to his.
Ms Archer has 28 days to appeal the NMC ruling.
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