Prison nurse 'had sex with rapist'

A prison nurse had sex with a convicted rapist at a top-security jail, a court has heard.

Karen Cosford, 47, exchanged intimate text messages on a smuggled mobile phone during her relationship with lifer Brian McBride and even wrote him a love letter, Leeds Crown Court was told.

But Cosford, who worked in the medical centre at Wakefield prison, denies misconduct, claiming McBride raped her, then bribed and intimidated her so she would not report it.

The married prison worker, of Normanton, West Yorkshire, "grossly breached the trust placed in her" and compromised prison security by having sex with McBride, Richard Wright, prosecuting, told jurors.

She also performed a sex act on him as two colleagues - Carolyn Falloon and Jacqueline Flynn - guarded his cell, Mr Wright said.

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

The court heard that 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".

The alleged 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, the court heard.