A female prison officer at The Mount near Hemel Hempstead has changed her plea to guilty over two counts of exchanging thousands of text messages and calls with an inmate.
Dawn MacCormack, 42, of Organ Hall Road, Borehamwood, was working at HMP The Mount when she shared a ‘prolific’ number of texts and calls with prisoner Josh Moore back in 2019.
MacCormack is in the second week of her trial at St Albans Crown Court.
She was just minutes into cross-examination by prosecutor Mark Seymour yesterday (Monday, July 22), when she accepted that she had no defence to the two charges. However, she denies being in a relationship with the prisoner.
Asked whether she was guilty over counts two and three, she told the prosecutor “guilty” to both.
Mr Seymour repeatedly asked her why she had not pleaded guilty at an earlier stage of the five-year period of criminal proceedings, including at the police interview and the beginning of the trial.
She said: “I can’t tell you. This was the first time I was ever arrested or had been in this situation.”
MacCormack also said she was unaware of the volume of information police had at the time of her arrest. She 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 previous receptionist job in 2016 after bosses accused her of bringing her mental health problems to work. She applied to join the prison service online after seeing an advert, and after starting in April 2018, she underwent 300 hours of training, including gaining an exam score of 45 out of 50. MacCormack also stated that she had depression at various stages and had “brain fog” about much of the time she was in contact with Moore.
Judge Michael Roques told the jury: “She 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 in the afternoon, and after pleading guilty to both counts, a guilty verdict was delivered by the jury forewoman. She continues to plead not guilty to the first offence of misconduct in a public office between January 1, 2019, and June 22, 2019, by failing to disclose that Moore had a mobile phone, but she claimed that she doesn’t know how Moore got a phone or her private number and that she never asked him who was responsible.
Mr Seymour said: “Literally 24 hours after he makes contact with you, you’re picking up your mobile phone and calling him for 37 minutes.”
The defendant replied: “I can’t deny the facts in front of me, but I can’t recall the situation. My whole world was falling apart.”
MacCormack insisted she couldn’t remember the context of their conversations, adding that Moore was upset about the anniversary of his brother’s death.
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.”
MacCormack was unable to explain why she had saved an Instagram image of Moore posing topless in a mirror in prison, clearly holding a mobile phone. The court was told that her friendship with a fellow prison officer aspiring to join the police had come to an end after her arrest.
The trial is expected to conclude, hearing evidence at the close of today (Tuesday, July 23).
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