Prison nurse is jailed for affair with convict

Karen Cosford had sex with inmate Brian McBride in the health centre at the prison where he was trusted as a cleaner while serving a life sentence.

She sent him affectionate text messages on a mobile phone, one of several he held illegally, and even wrote him a love letter describing him as her “knight in shining armour”.

Cosford, 47, of Marston Walk, Altofts, Wakefield, was one of four members of staff at the centre jailed at Bradford Crown Court yesterday for misconduct in a public office.

She was convicted by a jury at Leeds Crown Court last week on three such charges, by engaging in a sexual relationship with McBride, neglecting to notify prison authorities he possessed a mobile phone and purchasing top-ups for him.

The jurors rejected her account that she was raped by McBride and was not a willing party to the relationship but was compelled to continue out of fear after he had threatened her home would be petrol bombed with her family inside.

Carolyn Falloon, 51, a healthcare officer of Manor Road, Walton, Wakefield, with 22 years prison service and who is married to a prison governor, was jailed for 21 months.

She was also convicted on three charges of misconduct by failing to disclose Cosford’s relationship with McBride or his possession of the phone and also buying phone top ups for him.

Jacqueline Flynn, 46, another prison nurse, of The Leys, South Kirkby, was jailed for 15 months on two charges of misconduct by failing to report the relationship or that he had a phone.

Healthcare officer Kevin Wilson, 57, of St Michael’s Green, Normanton, also received 15 months in jail after he admitted three charges of misconduct by failing to report the relationship and McBride’s phone and supplying him with a SIM card.

Sentencing them, Judge David Hatton QC said: “It is a sad business indeed when four people of mature years and previous good character, public servants who have devoted as you have, several years to their vocation, should find themselves to be sentenced for having abused their position of trust.

“These acts and omissions each constitute a gross breach of security in a prison housing dangerous criminals. The possession of phones places at risk not only security but the safety of staff and undermines authority.”

The judge said: “I do not lose sight of the undoubted fact that each of you fell under the evil 
spell of the same unusually deceitful, manipulative and 
divisive prisoner Brian McBride but each of you were 
experienced and each of you 
had the power and duty to avoid that.”

There was an understandable perception because of the way McBride was treated by some of the senior managers at the jail that he was a privileged and protected prisoner but that did not excuse their actions.

While they would suffer the loss of their careers and vocations and prison would in itself be difficult for them because of their former occupations he said: “The misconduct in this case is so serious that only a custodial sentence is appropriate.”

Judge Hatton told Cosford it was accepted McBride could be an intimidating and dangerous inmate but the jury concluded her relationship with him was consensual. “Manipulated and deceived by him you might well have been but threatened and intimated by him you were not,” the judge said.

She had continued the relationship with him for some months and contemplated a life with him outside prison, whether that was motivated by avarice, believing him to be a man of means and influence, the effect was to compromise security and expose her colleagues to the dilemma of what to do when they found out.

It was not her fault they made the wrong choice to cover up, but she placed them in that situation.

He said when some of McBride’s phones were found during a search in 2009 and he callously revealed the affair to Cosford’s husband, a prison officer, it was then Cosford, who began working at the prison in 1994, had claimed rape.

After the case a spokesperson for HM Prison Service said: “The vast majority of our staff are honest and hard working. There is no place for corrupt members of staff in the Prison Service and we work closely with the police to identify them and will always press for the most serious charges to be brought against them.”

Detective Inspector Stuart Spencer praised the investigation team of DC Barry Aveyard, DC Helen Boycott-Law and case worker Joe Bradshaw.

“These three have worked tirelessly, to the detriment of their professional and private lives to ensure the successful conclusion of this operation.”