A SPOKESMAN for a small group of prisons officers recruits is demanding that they be allowed to rewrite their final examination which was reportedly contaminated by leaks.

Otherwise, he is threatening legal action against the prisons authorities.

The issue about leaks in the prisons recruits’ exam was exposed two weeks ago in the Sunday Mirror, in the lead story headlined: Cheating Prisons Officers.

The story alleged sexual liaisons between senior prisons officers and female recruits in exchange for the exam papers.

As a result of the allegations, prisons authorities deemed the December 9 exam tainted, but left outstanding the fate of the 104 recruits, who were supposed to pass out and become full-fledged prisons officers last December.

“Two Fridays ago, the Assistant Commission of the Prisons held a meeting and told us we will be passing out in mid-March,” said the spokesman.

“But he did not tell us if and when we will be sitting over the exam or what criteria will be used to determine who passed and failed.

“A minority of us feel that we should sit over the exam, since the field was not level because of cheating when we did the December 9 exam.

“That exam should be scrapped.”

He threatened: “If we feel unfair means were used to select the final batch, some of us will take legal action.”

However, that is not a popular position among the majority of recruits.

“Sitting over the entire exam is too much stress for us,” other recruits told TnT Mirror.

Meanwhile, prisons sources also revealed that: “The Mirror created a mini war in Arouca with the story.

“Every prisons officer wanted a copy to read about the ‘Cheating Prisons Officers’ story.

“We are happy for the exposure.

“This nonsense about instructors or senior officers sleeping with recruits for exam papers has been going on for far too long.

“One culprit in particular is a serial recruit specialist.

“He has to sample a recruit from almost every batch, mashing up relationships in the process.

“It is against the regulations for officers to have relationships with the recruits, but the authorities have been turning a blind eye to the nonsense.

“The exposure will hopefully shake them up.”

Some prisons officers reportedly had to travel to as far as Arima to buy a copy of the Mirror.

Meanwhile, internal disciplinary action has been taken against a number of prisons officers in connection with allegations levelled against them.

The disciplinary action was reportedly taken after a government minister called for heads to roll when he learnt of the alleged mis-behaviour of the prisons officers.