The horrors of Holloway

They were known as the Magnificent Seven: a cabal of senior prison officers who had effectively taken over Holloway jail, frightening, bullying and oppressing junior staff whom they viewed as sex objects and victims. The seven women, all lesbians, were seasoned staff, some with two decades of experience. Individually, they were regarded as valuable workers but together they formed a powerful clique which had a corrosive influence on life behind bars.

Their activities may sound like a tacky plot from TV prison drama Bad Girls, but as today's devastating internal report makes clear, they indulged in a conspiracy of sexual harassment which would be looked on with horror if it had been carried out by male managers against junior female colleagues in any workplace.

The unpublished prison service report, based on interviews with more than 150 Holloway staff past and present, makes shocking reading. Its key findings are:

? On sexual harassment: sexual activity described as "intrusive and offensive". The report adds: "Much of the open behaviour, if practised by men on women, would not be tolerated." The seven middle managers would compete to harass new female junior staff until they "turned".

? The culture of the prison: "A low and persistent level of inappropriate challenge and intimidation is the cultural norm." There was a specific sexual dimension to the culture.

? Bullying: the impact on the staff is "widespread and destructive". Bullying, practised by individuals and groups, had gone on over a long period.

? Harassment of male colleagues: Victimisation "takes place against a background of contempt for men", the report says.

? Abuse of authority: a group of middle managers used their authority to abuse staff and manipulate systems to their own advantage, new officers were treated particularly badly and systematically ignored as part of a campaign of mental abuse.

In an 18-month period 60 staff resigned and 50 were transferred to other jails. Holloway also had a chronic sick-leave record, with staff taking more days off than any other jail in the country.

Even with a dedicated and completely focused staff, the north London jail would be a difficult and turbulent establishment. It houses more than 500 women, most of them seriously damaged, with drug problems, backgrounds of abuse and in an amazing three out of four cases, diagnosed mental health problems.

So when Governor David Lancaster came to Martin Narey, director-general of the Prison Service, last October warning that his jail had been infected by a dangerous staff sub-culture, there was no hesitation in launching a far-reaching investigation.

Seven women, all uniformed senior or principal officers, the jail's middle-managers, were immediately shipped out to detached duties at other jails. In their absence, the staff who had been under their control began to open up.

It became clear that the rather nondescript staff social club within the walls of the jail had become the centre of a power game. It was here that the seven women targeted new female members of staff and turned their hostility on outnumbered junior male colleagues.

A source revealed: "Whenever new women started at the jail there would be a core group of people who started a competition to sexually harass them until, as they put it, they turned.

" The allegations were if these people showed any sign of weakness they would be targeted more. If they stood up for themselves straight away, they would be left alone."

It was more than just sexuality, though, it was about being tough. The group would target and victimise new male heterosexual staff. Mr Narey's investigators heard how men would be bullied and intimidated. The women would work collectively to put pressure on them by encouraging staff to simply blank or ignore new recruits. "They seemed very powerful - they reduced male officers to jelly. Some couldn't stand it and left." There is a section of the report where people refer to the group as the Magnificent Seven. "They had become so powerful that it was felt they were running the jail," a source said.

The investigators also uncovered evidence of a so-called "pairing" system within the female staff, presided over by the seven senior officers. It was tacitly understood that a lot of female staff at Holloway had physical sexual relationships with other members of staff but sources say it was not obvious until recently that it was not always consensual. "When a new member of staff arrived it was seen as a job for the group to find that person a girlfriend." New recruits were told: "We pair at Holloway."

Interestingly, there is no evidence that the officers ever turned their attention on prisoners. The feeling within the jail is that their behaviour would have been challenged much more quickly and that ironically, junior staff were more vulnerable than the women they had the power to lock up every night.

In the wake of the internal investigation's findings, the original seven women and two others have been transferred to other jails and will never work at Holloway again. At least four are expected to face disciplinary action which could see them sacked from the service.

At the same time, Mr Narey has decided to act on a recommendation to remove the entire top tier of management at the jail. A new governor, Ed Willetts, was installed at the prison before Christmas after David Lancaster - viewed by Narey as "a good man doing a very good job" was sent to head another jail. At noon today, Mr Willetts was told he was getting a brand new management team and that his five senior managers were being transferred. They are entirely blameless and had no involvement in the misdemeanours of the core group of seven senior officers.

But as Mr Narey told the Evening Standard: "I don't think they have failed. The team led by the previous governor have brought this matter into the open. I have just decided that to sort this out completely, we need a clean sweep. Some are very good people who will do well elsewhere, but we need to assert proper managerial control at Holloway."

Today's report also calls for the social club to be closed. Accordingly, it will be shut today and never re-opened.

Mr Narey has taken the decision to speak openly to the Evening Standard because he wants to send a message to every jail in England and Wales that he will deal robustly with bullying. He said: "The report is very disturbing. It does confirm that there has been bullying and intimidation of uniformed staff by other uniformed staff. I have transferred nine out permanently and set in hand some disciplinary proceedings.

"There is clear evidence of sexual harassment, the sort of behaviour which we wouldn't dream of tolerating between men and women. I'm not tolerating it between women and women.

"The investigation has shown that a group known as a clique within Holloway seems to have wielded a great deal of informal power over where staff could work, putting great pressure on new staff. The informal power base met at the social club - I am closing that down permanently. These staff who had been there some time effectively established themselves as an alternative management structure."

Asked what concerned him most about the investigation's findings, Mr Narey said: "Sexual harassment of women by other women, abuse of authority and, worryingly, a climate of contempt for male colleagues. They turned Holloway into an unhealthy place in which to be going to work, where a lot of staff felt threatened by a group of staff bullying them and wielding a great deal of power."

He added: "I am not blaming all of the ills of Holloway on this group. Holloway has big problems with so many different things, particularly terribly high levels of mental illness. But this behaviour has been making life much worse.

"People already tell me the atmosphere has lifted and I am confident we will get a much healthier prison, where staff are happier and more able to treat prisoners fairly."