Nurse guilty of having affair with rapist in Wakefield Jail

Karen Cosford, 47, had sex with inmate Brian McBride, who was serving a life sentence at the prison, one of Britain’s highest security establishments.

She sent the prisoner intimate text messages on a smuggled mobile phone and even wrote him a love letter which was found hidden in a jar of sugar.

Cosford performed a sex act on McBride while she was on duty as two colleagues - Carolyn Falloon and Jacqueline Flynn - guarded his cell, the jury heard.

On another occasion, Falloon caught her having sex with the inmate in the medical unit, but failed to report it.

Cosford, of Normanton, West Yorkshire, who worked in the jail’s medical centre, denied misconduct, claiming McBride raped her then bribed and intimidated her so she would not report it.

During a trial at Leeds Crown Court that lasted almost four weeks, she said he threatened to kill her and her family if she told anybody about their relationship.

But jurors ultimately rejected the claim after hearing how the prison nurse became inappropriately close to the inmate and struck up a sexual relationship which she sustained with gushing text messages.

After supplying mobile phone top-ups to McBride, Cosford texted him telling him he was “dead sexy” and that she loved him.

In one of the messages she thanked him for a “lovely box of chocolates” and, in another, told him he was “always in her heart”.

She also wrote him a graphic love letter, uncovered during a search of the prison after news of the relationship broke, in which she said: “You are my knight in shining armour.

“Who would’ve have ever thought you and me?

“When I think of you inside me it brings a smile to my heart. It’s a wonderful thought.

“I will rag you around. Only kidding. It will be the most sensual and close sex you have ever had.”

The relationship was exposed when McBride’s cell was searched and he told Cosford’s husband Darrie, a prison officer, he had been having an affair with his wife.

Cosford, who prosecutors said “grossly breached the trust placed in her”, denied all charges but was found guilty of misconduct through engaging in a sexual relationship with an inmate.

She was also found guilty of failing to tell prison authorities that McBride had a mobile phone, and bringing in top-ups on behalf of the prisoner.

Carolyn Falloon, 50, of Wakefield, and Jacqueline Flynn, 46, from Pontefract, were found guilty of failing to report the relationship and not reporting McBride’s mobile phone. Falloon was also found guilty of supplying McBride with mobile top-ups.

Prison health care worker David Sunderland, 49, of Wakefield denied a misconduct charge of not reporting McBride’s mobile phone and was found not guilty.

Another of their colleagues, health care officer Kevin Wilson, 56, also of Normanton, earlier pleaded guilty to failing to notify authorities of Cosford’s relationship, failing to tell authorities McBride had a mobile phone and supplying McBride with a sim card.

Judge David Hatton QC will sentence Cosford, Falloon and Flynn at Bradford Crown Court on Monday.

Wilson, who gave evidence against his colleagues during the trial, will also be sentenced on Monday.

All those due to be sentenced were granted bail.