A POLICE woman jailed for drugs offences was today waiting to walk out of her cell and into the arms of her pop star fiance.

Freedom for former officers Liza Wilkinson and Elizabeth Hartley comes after months of problems within the prison system which forced authorities to transfer them to a jail 200 miles from home for their own safety.

Barney Williams, keyboard player with the one-time hit Burnley-band The Milltown Brothers, is expected to travel to Essex to meet girlfriend Liza Wilkinson as she is released from the Bullwood Hall jail, near Hockley, on Tuesday.

The couple have been making wedding plans during prison visits.

Liza, 25, from Padiham, and Elizabeth, 26, from Simonstone, were given a 12-month sentence for drugs offences at Liverpool Crown Court last October.

The uniformed officers, based in Padiham and Burnley, pleaded guilty to supplying amphetamine and cannabis, possessing them with intent to supply and simple possession of the drugs. Hartley also admitted possessing two ecstasy tablets.

The pair, who shared a flat in Albert Road, Colne, were transferred from the HMP Risley, in Cheshire, to Bullwood Hall youth custody and women's prison after an appeal against the sentence failed last year.

It is believed warders at Risley learned of a planned attack on the ex-WPCs. The two had already been placed on a segregated wing after spending a first night amid the screams and taunts of other inmates.

A prison service spokesman said: "It is now usual prison service policy to locate inmates as close as possible to their families.

"If there is a perceived threat against an inmate, then we will do all we can to help them.

"It would be quite common for former police officers to face a hard time while serving a prison sentence."

Barney, 27, who played on The Milltown Brothers' five chart-topping singles, has regularly travelled to Essex to see Liza. Music by the band was recently used as the theme tune to the All Quiet On The Preston Front television programme.

The musician, who is mid-way through a degree course in jazz and contemporary music, recently quit a new Burnley-based project because of the strain of travelling to see Liza and studying.

He still works part-time at the Burnley branch of record retailers Our Price.

Elizabeth Hartley's step-father said he did not want to say anything about his daughter's future or treatment in prison.

Liza Wilkinson's mother said the family now wanted to get over the ordeal as quickly as possible.

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