A female prison officer has been jailed for her ‘intimate’ relationship with an inmate after she was caught on camera massaging the topless convict.
Dawn MacCormack, 42, was working at HMP The Mount near Hemel Hempstead when she started inappropriate contact with inmate Josh Moore, beginning in January 2019.
Fellow officers raised suspicions about the pairs ‘intimate’ behaviour which included ‘flirting’ and ‘giggling.’ And after a search Moore was found to be in possession of two illicit phones smuggled into the prison.
It later emerged that he and mother-of-two MacCormack had shared up to 4,500 texts and calls using the two devices between 15 May 2019 and 20 June 2019.
MacCormack from Borehamwood, was convicted of misconduct at St Albans Crown Court on July 25, having pleaded guilty to two other counts of exchanging the messages at a late stage during the trial.
Today, she wept in the dock as Judge Michael Roques told her this was ‘a repeated and deliberate breach of a high degree of trust’ and she had exposed herself to risk of blackmail and undermined prison safety by failing to report the phones.
He said: ‘Whilst I cannot be sure you were in a full sexual relationship with Mr Moore, it would undoubtedly be described as an intimate relationship based on mutual sexual attraction.’
The Judge described how MacCormack was a recently recruited prison officer working in Nash Wing in January 2019, when the inappropriate contact began. MacCormack would work on a shift of typically six to eight officers, presiding over 120 prisoners.
Among the inmates was Josh Moore, then serving an eight-year term for aggravated burglary.
The judge said: ‘Other prison officers became concerned at the amount of time you were spending with Josh Moore.
‘You were described as speaking to him for hours. They became more concerned still when you began spending time with him alone.’
The court heard MacCormack would take Moore into areas of the prison not covered by CCTV such as the servery.
On one occasion, the pair were caught unknowingly on camera as MacCormack massaged Moore while he was topless.
MacCormack was said to have ‘rebuffed’ repeated warnings from colleagues and denied anything was wrong with her relationship with Moore.
A fellow officer estimated she spent over ’50 per cent’ of her time on duty with him.
The judge said: ‘There was another incident when you were play fighting with Mr Moore and another officer sought to intervene and ended up injuring his hand, as it was caught between Mr Moore and a gate.
‘On more than one occasion when prisoners were being locked up for the night, the roll call could not be completed because Mr Moore could not be found.’
The judge said Moore would invariably be found in MacCormack’s company, and she would explain he wished to talk about his brother’s death.
‘You used that repeatedly as an excuse for your behaviour. When he was finally placed in his cell, you went in the cell with him and pulled the door after you.’
The judge said there was the potential Moore could have taken MacCormack hostage in such a situation.
‘Matters came to a head when you were alone together in a landing office. He was told to go back to his cell, and you were told once again how inappropriate it was to be alone with a prisoner.
‘You were told by staff that other prisoners and other members of staff were talking about the two of you, and once again you brushed off any suggestion that your behaviour was anything other than professional.’
Eventually, a number of officers reported their concerns officially.
During a day when MacCormack was not on duty, Moore remarked to an officer he’d heard MacCormack had been ‘told off’ for speaking to him.
This aroused suspicions the pair were communicating by phone, as it was impossible for Moore to be aware MacCormack had been disciplined as she was not on duty.
A search of Moore’s cell in June 9, 2019, uncovered a phone as he tried to flush it down a toilet.
On this phone there was ‘prolific’ contact with 85 calls and 4,100 texts between him and MacCormack over the course of 25 days.
‘The spanned every single day and were distributed for all hours of the day,’ said prosecutor Mark Seymour.
After the first phone was discovered, Moore got hold of a second mobile. In a period of less than 48 hours, there were seven calls and 272 texts at all hours of the day. By the time MacCormack was arrested on 22 June 2019, the texts on her phone had been deleted.
A deep search found she had a topless picture of Moore saved in a password-protected vault, with a message saying he missed her. It is unknown how Moore acquired the phones.
Although MacCormack claimed to be remorseful, Judge Roques rejected this as she continued to insist the relationship was platonic.
Her claim that she did not know how Moore came to have her mobile phone number was also dismissed.
MacCormack was sentenced to 27 months for misconduct, with six months concurrent on each of the counts of exchanging messages.
She will serve half the sentence before being released on licence. Moore pleaded guilty to possessing the illicit phones in 2020 and was jailed for nine months, consecutive to another prison term.
During her trial, McCormack told defence barrister Abigail Bright that she was in a state of extreme distress at the time of the alleged offending, as her mother was dying of pancreatic cancer; and her own marriage to her husband had come to an end after 15 years, although they were still living in the same house with their children.
She said that she was dismissed from her receptionist job in 2016 after bosses accused her of bringing her mental health problems to work.
She applied to join the prison service, and after starting in April 2018, she underwent 300 hours of training, including gaining an exam score of 45 out of 50.
MacCormack also said she had had depression at various stages and had ‘brain fog’ about much of the time she was in contact with Moore.
During the trial, prosecutor Mark Seymour challenged her: ‘For all you knew, everyone in the whole of Nash Wing knew that you were in extensive conversations with Mr Moore.
For all you knew, he went round to everybody boasting. ‘No doubt you appreciated that if it were to become known to authorities, you would be in deep trouble.’
She answered: ‘I would have known that deep down.’
Mr Seymour then asked MacCormack how she would have dealt with a situation of blackmail from other prisoners, aware of her texts with Moore.
She replied: ‘That never happened.’
Mr Seymour said: ‘You created a situation where for all you knew, the whole world and his wife could blackmail you.’ She answered: ‘They could have done, yes. I put myself in a vulnerable situation.’
The prosecutor said: ‘You put yourself in a criminal position.’
The court heard that her friendship with a fellow prison officer aspiring to join the police, who was among the colleagues whose advice she had rebuffed, had also come to an end after her arrest.