Karen Harrington strikes up friendship with mum jailed for selling pics of her kids to paedo

It comes as the overcrowding in the women’s wing of Limerick Prison has sparked fears of violence, with inmates forming close groups.

Terrorists and transgender women are also being held in overcrowded conditions.

A source said the groups are being formed to create more cell space, but added: “It’s getting dangerous because you never know when they will turn on one another or a staff member.”

Prisoners have had to double up in cells because of the overcrowding, while a purpose-built new wing remains empty.

Sources say child killer Karen Harrington is friends with a woman serving time for selling photos of her children to paedophile Timmy Duggan. The pair often exercise together.

They are part of group which includes another woman on remand awaiting trial for a serious crime against a child.

Harrington was convicted last year of two-year-old Santina Cawley’s murder at her Cork flat in July 2019.

At the top of the prison pecking order are the two female terrorists who are now sharing a cell in Limerick Prison — ISIS member and former soldier Lisa Smith and dissident republican killer Rose Lynch.

The Sunday World previously revealed how they had their own cells, but get on well together and agreed to share with each other to make room.

Smith and Lynch have both been described as model prisoners.

While Smith, who got a 15-month sentence last May, can expect to be free by April, Lynch is serving a life sentence for murder.

One of the prison’s most infamous inmates, Charlotte Mulhall, has not made any alliances, according to Sunday World sources.

Mulhall is serving life for the murder of her mother’s violent boyfriend, Farah Swaleh Noor, whose dismembered remains were found dumped in Dublin’s Royal Canal in 2005.

Mulhall, who is Ireland’s longest serving female prisoner, has recently been enjoying escorted trips out of the prison to meet with relatives.

An added complication for prison staff is the presence of two transgender women who are kept separate from the rest of the inmates.

Barbie Kardashian, who was found guilty last year of making threats to kill her mother, is due for sentence next month in Limerick Circuit Court.

Another transgender woman who can’t be named in order to protect their victim, is serving time for sexually assaulting a child and threatening to break their arms and legs.

The prison’s new block for women is part of a €60m development at Limerick Prison. It has been left unused because of problems with the sewerage system and complaints about odours.

The block will not be fully opened until the second quarter of this year.