A Hertfordshire prison officer who shared more than 4,000 text messages with an inmate has been found guilty of misconduct in a public office.

Dawn MacCormack was working at HMP The Mount prison, near Hemel Hempstead, when she began having contact with prisoner Josh Moore, sharing more than 4,000 messages and more than 90 calls with him.

The 42-year-old, of Organ Hall Road, Borehamwood, denied 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 was found guilty by a jury at St Albans Crown Court.

Moore, then 28, admitted to being in possession of an illicit phone in 2019 and in August 2020.

During the trial, MacCormack admitted two charges of unauthorised transmission of either calls or texts between May 15, 2019 and June 8, 2019, and again between June 16, 2019 and June 20, 2019.

She is due to be sentenced on September 13.

The court heard that on the first phone, over the course of 25 days there were 85 calls and 4,100 texts between the pair.

“They spanned every single day and were distributed for all hours of the day,” said prosecutor Mark Seymour.

After the first phone was discovered, Moore obtained a second mobile, and in less than 48 hours, seven calls and 272 texts were shared.

When MacCormack was arrested in 2019, police found the texts on her phone had been deleted, but she had sent a message to a friend speaking about the relationship, which read: "I am only human. It boils down to human feelings. I just had human emotions and feelings."

Giving evidence, MacCormack told defence barrister Abigail Bright that she was in a state of extreme distress at the time, as her mother was dying of pancreatic cancer, and her 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.

MacCormack 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.

She also stated that she had depression at various stages and had "brain fog" about much of her contact with Moore.

Mr Seymour described her behaviour as "inappropriate", adding: "It involved a breach of her duties as a prison officer.

"Communication by mobile phone with an inmate is a serious offence in its own right. She failed to disclose he was in possession of illicit mobile phone. It was frankly her job to do that.

"The phone contact was not just the odd call or text it was genuinely prolific. She acted inappropriately with Mr Moore."