Online Reporter
LONDON. —Smiling for the camera, chatting about everything from her favourite snacks to skincare, Choni Kenny looks like any other beauty influencer sharing her everyday life with her thousands of followers.
Except that’s where the similarity to most social media stars ends —as the 28-year-old former cop, who was sentenced to three years behind bars for having a secret fling with two criminals, has carved out an unusual niche as a shameless ‘prison-fluencer’.
And she’s not the only one.
Kenny, who had been a serving officer for Greater Manchester police since 2020, enjoyed a “casual sexual relationship” with drug dealer Josh Whelan and was seen passionately kissing him at Forest Bank Prison in Salford, while still wearing her uniform.
She later broke up with the “committed criminal” and started an illicit fling with Rahim Mottley, who was under investigation by GMP.
She was jailed for three years and nine months after pleading guilty to four offences of misconduct in public office and one of conspiracy to commit misconduct last April —but rather than keep her head down upon release, Kenny’s online fame soared after sharing videos about her time inside.
After her release in January, she made posts on TikTok about topping up her tan through the bars, trips to the in-jail salon and ‘fit checks’ —giving fans the lowdown on her whole outfit, including her electronic tag ‘accessory’.
It’s perhaps a far cry from what many would expect from prison life, but it’s proving to be a popular subject, with Choni now boasting 18k TikTok followers, and her most-watched prison post having been viewed over 500k times.
Scores of content creators use hashtags including #prisontok or #prisontiktok, either to post about their former life in prison, or even, in some cases, using contraband phones to post online, boast about perks and privileges they’ve wrangled, such as parties or takeaways.
The Sun previously revealed how prisoners bragged about “ordering Five Guys burgers to their cells by drones“, while killer Eugert Merizaj was able to make £20,000 on TikTok while livestreaming from his cell.
But why is it such a popular topic that allows former criminals to build a huge online following?
As psychiatrist Mel Plourde explains: “People react strongly to stories that are raw, honest, and without filters, especially if it is something that we will most probably never experience ourselves.
“Prison is a closed world. It’s a mystery. It draws attention.
“Some people who post about prison are trying to tell their story in their own words to fix how they are perceived by the public.
“They explain what happened, warn other people, and show who they are after the sentence. Audiences respond well to confession and redemption. A prison story is very attractive because it has fear, regret, humour, routine, power, and survival, all at once.”
Convict content
Among the bigger names in the “prison-influencer” world is American Jessica Kent, who boasts a staggering 1.48m TikTok followers, and spent years in and out of prison for drug, assault and firearm charges.
She was addicted to drugs for ten years and even gave birth behind bars, chained to a hospital bed as it was policy for prisoners to be secured when outside prison — but has since turned her life around.
She’s posted videos on everything from inmates making sex toys out of soap, what it’s like to have a period in prison, to the “dumbest” prison rules she was made to follow, such as only being allowed five photos.
Her YouTube video, ‘I Had a Baby in Prison‘ has been viewed nearly two million times, and she was one of the first to start posting “convict content”.
Speaking in 2020, she said: “I didn’t know about other prison YouTube accounts when I started.
“After I uploaded my first video, YouTube was like, ‘Oh, you’re into prison? Here are a bunch of men screaming at the camera, talking about prison gangs.’ I was frustrated.
“My story was completely different from those guys. I felt like the lone girl, floating by myself in the ocean.”
Standing out on social media
As Kent has proven, prison content is a hot topic, and seemingly guaranteed to attract followers.
Criminal lawyer Benson Varghese says: “For the creator, it is an obvious niche in the overcrowded world of social media.
“It is getting harder and harder to stand out on the internet, and stories coming directly from an unusual experience are the most likely to succeed.”
After serving just nine months of her sentence, Kenny has recreated herself as a luxury skin & aesthetic expert and also inadvertently as a prison-influencer.
Mixed in with her more mainstream beauty content, she hit the headlines recently for also sharing tales from her time in three of the UK’s prisons —HMP Styal, Cheshire, HMP Drake Hall, Staffordshire, and Category D (minimum security) Askham Grange, North Yorkshire.
“Obviously, out of the three, Cat D was the best, because I was getting to come home every weekend… I was allowed to see my family a lot more…” Choni reveals in one clip.
“But out of those jails, the best one for me was definitely HMP Styal.
“I think that’s because I was closer to home and just felt at peace, as crazy as that (sounds), because every time I looked out of my window I would always just see sparrows flying around…
“It was a stone’s throw away (from home), the people were lovely, the staff were amazing.”
Princess-themed prison party
Only recently, prison influencer María Paola Galeano sparked controversy for celebrating her birthday behind bars in lavish fashion with a luxury pink-themed party — complete with balloons and a sound system.
In the videos, a golden backdrop, a pink balloon arch, a princess cake and flowers can be seen decorating the jail cell.
The content —shared to Galeano’s 200,000 TikTok followers —was quickly flooded with birthday wishes. The inmate has become a big influencer, despite having been behind bars in Lomas de Zamora, Argentina, for 13 years.
Following the video being posted to her social media, prison guards searched her cell and confiscated her phone. —Sun Club
