THE battered ex-wife of a former York prison officer who walked free from court called today for him to spend more time in jail – this time behind the bars.

Jayne Jones said she was pressing the authorities to increase Gary Bridge’s sentence for subjecting her to years of violence, during which he threatened to kill her and falsely imprisoned her.

She said she could not believe it when a judge at York Crown Court suspended a 16-month prison sentence on Bridge, who met and married her in secret when she was a prisoner at Askham Grange Jail – in breach of prison rules.

Recorder Paul Sloan QC said Bridge’s case was an exceptional one because he had been suffering from mental illness.

But Ms Jones, 43, formerly of Wigginton, said today: “Nobody mentioned my post-traumatic stress disorder. What justice have I got?”

She said she believed Bridge had received special treatment because he used to be a prison officer and she was a prisoner. “I think it made all the difference,” she said.

She revealed she had asked the Attorney General to refer his case to the Court of Appeal for his sentence to be increased – and said North Yorkshire Crown Prosecution Service had done likewise. A CPS spokesman confirmed it had submitted papers to the Attorney General’s office “for consideration as to whether the sentence passed by the Court in this case was unduly lenient”.

Ms Jones told The Press she had tried to kill herself because she could not cope with the mental effects of Bridge’s years of violence against her.

She claimed Bridge stalked her after their divorce and she had to move five times to escape him and that she now lived at a secret address. She said she had gone public because of his harassment.

In May, a family court judge granted her a non-molestation order forbidding him from having any contact with her indefinitely.

She said she had felt abused again in court by him during the hearing. “I felt he was sitting there laughing. I also feel he knew he was going to court and not getting custody.”

She feared his sentence would discourage others suffering abuse at the hands of people with positions in society to come forward.

Bridge, 55, of Ripley Castle, near Harrogate, pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning her, threatening to kill her, affray and three charges of actual bodily harm. The judge said he could suspend the sentence because Bridge was suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome caused by his experiences in prison at the time and depression. Both illnesses were exacerbated by his sacking after the prison authorities found out about his forbidden relationship with Ms Jones, his second wife.


How prison guard secretly married inmate at his jail

A FAIRYTALE romance turned into a nightmare secret marriage behind bars between a prisoner and a prison guard.

Jayne Jones and Gary Bridge met at Askham Grange Open Women’s Prison when she was serving 30 months for fraud and he was a senior prison officer.

Within a month of him proposing to her during her Christmas holiday from prison, he arranged for her to have a day release so they could marry at York Register Office.

He lived at her home while she continued to serve her sentence for another five months until she was released and joined him at her house in Wigginton, York.

But their relationship and marriage broke prison rules which forbid any kind of relationship between prison guards and prisoners.

“It was absolutely awful,” she said. “I didn’t want to lie. It meant the marriage was a secret. I didn’t want to be trapped in a lie and a secret. I wanted to be happy he had married me.

“It was a misery and a huge weight. It made me feel terrible – and there was the incredible fear of being discovered and being removed from there and taken back to closed conditions.”

Five years later, they divorced after he attacked her on several occasions with weapons including CS gas and a claw hammer, imprisoned her in her home and threatened to kill her.

“It was really an extension of jail. I had to give up my friends and family. My sentence went on until July 2004,” said Ms Jones.

It had been very different when, newly arrived at Askham Grange from New Hall closed women’s prison in December 1998, Ms Jones was diagnosed with cancer. She said she felt isolated, vulnerable and had no one to talk to. But Bridge helped her and a relationship developed.

Given three days’ leave from prison over Christmas, she met up with him for a drink.

“He proposed to me and said he was madly in love with me,” she said. “He wanted to give up his job.

“He told me I was the most wonderful person and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. It was like a fairytale, a dream come true.”

She thought they would marry after she was released in the July, as prisoners and prison officers were forbidden to have relationships.

But in January, Bridge arranged for her to have a day release and they were married on January 30, 1999, at York Register Office.