A married prison guard who was secretly having sex with a teenage inmate whilst working in HMP Holloway has lost an appeal against his four year jail term.

In a situation straight out of hit US TV show Orange Is the New Black, Andre Edman, who was working as an operational support officer at the women’s jail in Camden Road, began a sexual relationship with then 19-year-old jewellery robber Lauren Lafayette-Ede.

Edman, 36, took advantage of his lover’s job of delivering food to different levels of the prison to secretly engage in sex acts with her whilst in the lifts between floors.

The guard, of Brigstock Road, Croydon, was rumbled when his wife found letters from the inmate containing explicit references to their relationship which ran from March to May last year.

He was convicted of three counts of misconduct in public office at Blackfriars Crown Court on May 22 and handed a four-year sentence.

At London’s Criminal Appeal Court Edman asked three justices to reduce his sentence, arguing he was a victim of “gender disparity” and had been treated more harshly than a woman would have been in his position.

Edman’s conviction came just four months after a female guard at the same prison, Sophia King-Chinnery, was jailed for just 10 months after an eight month relationship with a convicted murderer.

But Mr Justice Spencer threw out Edman’s appeal, saying that Lafayette-Ede had been vulnerable because of her age and he had taken advantage of her through his position of authority.

“This was a severe sentence, but no more than that, and this appeal is dismissed,” the judge concluded.

Lafayette-Ede was given a four year sentence in April last year for her part in several “Bonny and Clyde” armed robberies with her then boyfriend, targeting people selling jewellery online.