http://metro.co.uk/2013/11/11/prison-officer-sacked-and-four-others-disciplined-after-madeleine-mccann-t-shirt-stunt-4183081/
A prison officer has been sacked and four others disciplined after photos of them wearing T-shirts saying ‘We Have Madeleine McCann’ during a drunken night out were posted on Facebook.
They were among at least seven staff on a ‘boys’ weekend’ when the images were taken.
The pictures were on Facebook for two months before being brought to the attention of their bosses at Wandsworth Prison, London.
But a colleague told Metro it was ‘despicable’ that some involved in the incident were still working at the jail. He said: ‘It makes me sick to think just because they work for the prison service that they should get away with this disrespectful behaviour.
‘If I was the mother or father of Madeleine McCann I would want to know about this.’
The incident happened when the officers were ‘very drunk’ on a weekend away, he claimed.
The officer said printing slogans on Prison Service T-shirts about Madeleine, who went missing in Portugal in 2007, was a ‘disgusting act’. One senior officer has been dismissed, another remains suspended and three others received final written warnings.
Their code of conduct makes it a disciplinary offence to bring the prison service into disrepute through social media.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘Appropriate disciplinary action has been taken following an incident concerning a number of prison officers outside of working hours and away from the prison.’
