I was coerced into keeping quiet after jail rape, nurse tells jury

Karen Cosford, 47, said Brian McBride, who was serving life, also told her pictures had been taken of her rape on a secret camera and would be put “pay per view” on the internet if she did not keep quiet.

She told Leeds Crown Court 
McBride had previously chatted to her about being former SAS with gangland associates in London.

He said he had seen people shot and on one occasion someone fed to a pig, so she believed him when he threatened her home would be petrol bombed if she spoke up.

Cosford is one of four health unit staff who deny misconduct in a public office.

She is alleged by the prosecution to have had an affair with McBride, a trusted cleaner in the health unit.

She told the court McBride was often not locked in at the same time as others in the unit and on that night in 2008 she went to have a cigarette at the door of his cell which was common practice among staff.

He persuaded her inside but then she began to feel uneasy, as he towered over her 5ft 3in.

“I started to get a little bit panicky. I wasn’t comfortable with the situation and then the next thing I remember happening was he pushed me from the back of my neck on to the bed.”

“He spun me round and he ended up on top of me on the bottom half of his bed.”

Asked by her counsel Andrew Stubbs QC what she was thinking at that point she said: “I don’t know, just complete and utter shock, disbelief that this was happening and absolute devastation.”

Cosford said McBride told her to be quiet and after pulling down her uniform trousers raped her.

“I was just terrified. I wanted to get out of there. I wanted it over. At one point I remember thinking ‘he’s going to kill me’.”

She said her only thought was “survival”. When he did let her go everything seemed just a haze.

“It just felt so unreal I didn’t comprehend what had happened. It was like an out of body experience, that’s all I can equate it to.”

She told the jury she always thought if she was attacked she would fight and scream but had not been able to do so. She went home and had a drink and a bath and did not tell her husband or report it.

“I just couldn’t. I questioned myself as to whether I had allowed it to happen, whether I had 
put myself in that position, whether anybody would ever believe me.”

When she next saw McBride in prison he told her about the footage of the attack being put on the internet by his sister if she did not stay quiet.

Cosford said she had no reason to think he was lying when he told her his sister ran a business in Harrogate providing security equipment and claiming a camera had been secretly hidden in his stereo.

Subsequently he made the threats about her family.

“He told me to keep my mouth shut. My family were at risk, that they would pour petrol through my letter box and set fire to my house when we were all in it and nobody would ever know.

“We would just perish.”

She told the jury McBride knew details about her, her home and her son that made her believe he had contacts outside so she tried to act normally at work while living in constant fear of him.

“I did what I had to do to survive.”

Cosford, of Marston Walk, Altofts, Wakefield denies misconduct by having a sexual relationship with McBride, failing to report he had a mobile phone and buying top ups for him.

Health care officer Carolyn Falloon, 50 of Manor Crescent, Walton denies failing to notify authorities about the sexual relationship, McBride having a phone and buying him top ups.

Prison nurses Jacqueline Flynn, 46 of The Leys, South Kirkby and David Sutherland, 49 of Millcroft, Lofthouse, Wakefield, both deny failing to report McBride had a phone and Flynn failing to report the relationship.

The trial continues.