An aspiring Aussie rapper has detailed for the first time how he fell in love with a glamorous prison officer during a two-month stint in one of Sydney’s most notorious prisons.
Hoodrich Hefner, whose real name is Caleb Valeri, met Melissa Goodwin, 27, after being transferred to the Silverwater Correctional Complex in Sydney’s west.
After initiating a relationship in jail, the pair went on to date before Goodwin was stood down by Corrective Services NSW over a separate relationship with another prisoner, Corey London.
‘I knew from the jump’
Appearing on The Search podcast, Valeri – who police allege is linked to the Rebels Bikie Group – said he felt an instant connection with Goodwin.
“The first thing that stood out to me was that she came over by herself. Usually correctional officers walk around in two or three pairs,” he told infamous rapper and podcast host Spanian.
“It just started. I knew from the jump. I’ll be honest. I’m not even trying to sound cocky. The first conversation we had, I knew that I bagged her.”
Valeri said the pair continued to flirt over the next week while he was placed in a solitary cell.
“Everyday we were just trading back conversations. I was just testing the waters,” he said.
“She was flirting back with quite a lot but what I understand was that I didn’t want to make the jump in case she was trying to do a quick get up on me and earn a stripe,” he continued, referring to fears of Goodwin ‘dobbing’ him in to her fellow officers.
After consulting with his fellow cellmates, Valeri “built up the courage” to write a “massive” letter to Goodwin. After doing so, he hid the note in a shaving tube left in the jail store room.
Within “two minutes to half an hour”, Goodwin had responded with another letter.
After communicating through written notes for another two weeks, Valeri said Goodwin helped him get a “sweeper” job, which meant he was paid to help with domestic tasks around the jail. This also allowed them to escalate their relationship.
“I was basically floating around and doing my thing. I used to talk to her … and I used to play it off by pretending I was folding towels and making my bed just to get that extra 10 seconds, so we could have that conversation,” he said.
“By the letters, we were planning a future apparently.
“That’s how it felt.”
Relationship continues out of jail
While the pair’s romance remained secret during Valeri’s two-month stint in jail, he said people had suspicions.
However, Goodwin and Valeri continued to date after he was released, with the couple living at her family home in southwest Sydney.
The experience was mixed, he recalled.
“I was spinning out. I saw correctional clothing every day in jail, to see one getting ready in front of me,” he said.
While he believes Goodwin’s mom was aware of the relationship, he joked that at one point he pretended to be a concreter, in order to keep their romance under wraps from her dad.
“Her dad was suss on me from the jump,” he said.
Then, in the two to three days after he was released, Valeri recalls getting a call from Goodwin.
“I’m half asleep and she’s like: ‘They know, they know,’” he said.
A few days later, Goodwin was arrested for sexual misconduct with an inmate. Valeri recalled he saw a media frenzy and “20 police” bang on the door of her parents’ home while they were sleeping.
“I’m thinking to myself: ‘they’re coming for me, what have I done,’” said Valeri.
“It spun me out.”
Goodwin was arrested, and later convicted, on charges of engaging in an intimate relationship with an inmate causing a safety risk. Under NSW law the crime carries a maximum punishment of up to two years in jail.
The prisoner was identified as then 21-year-old Corey London, who had been convicted of armed robbery.
Although Goodwin was accused of performing up to five counts of oral sex on another inmate, Corey London between December 2019 and April 2020, these charges were later dropped.
However, during the podcast, Valeri said he felt hurt when these claims were exposed.
“It got me burnt, I’m not going to lie,” he said.
“That’s how I felt. New boyfriend every wing.”
Relationship ends and assault charges
Eventually their relationship disintegrated.
“I had people telling me it was no good, it was only going to end one way,” he said.
Valeri also received pushback from some of his friends at the time.
“I was dating a correctional offer, to some people that’s like dating a police officer,” he said.
“I was all over the news and it got to boys apparently getting raided because of me … they would blame me for the raids that were happening all around.”
“I was losing people that I grew up with left and right.”
In September 2021, Goodwin, 26, was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm after allegedly biting Valeri during an argument.
However the charges were dropped in June 2022 after Valeri failed to appear in court, despite two attempts to serve him with subpoenas, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Goodwin’s lawyer Derek Shridhar claimed his client bit the rapper in self-defense, so she could called triple 0 after he lunged at her without provocation.
Valeri is also facing domestic violence charges, for allegedly assaulting and intimidating Goodwin, dating back to August 2021.