A PRISON officer shared illicit phone calls with an inmate who severed a man’s leg in a machete attack, a court heard.
Heather Pinchbeck allegedly made the secret calls while working at HMP Dovegate in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire.
She is accused of speaking to Joseph Hardy, 31, who was jailed for 14 years in 2017 for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
He violently attacked an unarmed man with a machete – causing the victim to lose a leg.
Pinchbeck appeared at Birmingham Crown Court charged with two alleged offences, Mail Online reports.
The first charge states she “without authority” transmitted or caused the “transmission of an image / sound from a prison“.
This was allegedly carried out between February 2, 2023, and March 4, 2023.
Pinchbeck is also accused of “wilfully neglecting to perform her duty/wilfully misconducting herself while acting as a public officer” by communicating with a prisoner using an illicit device.
She was working at the Category B jail at the time of the alleged offences.
Hardy is charged with making illicit communications with a prison officer and possessing a phone in prison.
Pinchbeck, who is believed to have a young daughter, is now working for a PR agency.
The business administration diploma graduate is described as having “spent her early career working for HM Prison Service as a Prison Offender Manager”.
