A former teacher at High Down prison has been told she will face time behind bars after admitting an "inappropriate relationship" with a prisoner and smuggling him unauthorised packages.

Lilian Aghaizu, 49, of Pipewell Road, Carshalton, appeared at Guildford Crown Court on Friday, where she pleaded guilty to three charges of misconduct.

She was charged with being a "holder of public office who wilfully neglected to perform her duty or misconducted herself" between January and May last year.

Aghaizu, who was teaching at the category B male prison during this time, admitting to entering into a relationship with a serving prisoner, with the pair exchanging text messages and having conversations which were "inappropriate".

She was also accused of not reporting the prisoner for illegally having a mobile phone in prison and buying credit for it.

The teacher also admitted smuggling unauthorised packages into the prison for the prisoner and failing to report she had so been asked to do so by him.

Asked by Judge Christopher Critchlow what was in the packages, Richard Elliott, prosecuting, said: "She [Aghaizu] said when she spoke to her superior it was grass.

"The prosecution has no evidence of what was in the packages but by her own admission she believed it was drugs."

Mr Elliott said unemployed Aghaizu had a previous criminal conviction for fraud and he would be checking "whether she actually told the agency [which had employed her] of that."

Addressing Aghaizu, who is single and lives with her 24-year-old son, Judge Critchlow said: "You must expect an immediate term of prison for these offences."

A date for her sentencing has not yet been set.