Prison officer's 'thousands of texts' with inmate

A prison officer has pleaded guilty to exchanging thousands of text messages and calls with an inmate.

Dawn MacCormack, 42, was working at HMP The Mount, near Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, when she shared a "prolific" number of communications with prisoner Josh Moore in 2019.

She admitted two charges of "unauthorised transmission of calls or texts" when cross-examined during her trial at St Albans Crown Court.

MacCormack continues to deny a charge of misconduct in a public office and being in a relationship with Moore.

The trial heard how MacCormack, of Organ Hall Road, Borehamwood, used two separate phones to contact Moore over a period of about one month.

She maintained she was not guilty of failing to disclose that Moore had a mobile phone between 1 January, 2019 and 22 June, 2019.

Mark Seymour, prosecuting, told the court the two phones were recovered from Moore's cell at the category C prison on different days in June 2019.

On the first phone there was "prolific" contact with 85 calls and 4,100 texts over 25 days.

"They spanned every single day and were distributed for all hours of the day," he said.

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, the court heard.

She was just minutes into cross-examination from Mr Seymour when she accepted that she had no defence to the two charges, although she denies being in a relationship with the prisoner.

Judge Michael Roques told the jury: "She [MacCormack] has very candidly accepted that she doesn't have a defence to counts two and three on the indictment and that she is guilty."

MacCormack was rearraigned and, after pleading guilty to both counts, a guilty verdict was delivered by the jury forewoman.

The trial on the remaining charges continues and is expected to conclude on Tuesday.

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