Lincolnshire prison officer cleared after being accused of ‘tipping off’ life prisoner who went on the run

Richard Goodwin, 41, from Skegness, was alleged to have “forewarned” life prisoner Brian McBride, 54, that he was about to be moved to a tougher jail.

McBride was serving his life sentence for sex offences at North Sea Camp open jail, near Boston, when he fled from his regular work placement at a local church.

The prosecution alleged Goodwin, who liaised with prisoner work placements, had contacted McBride after learning that he was shortly going to be transferred to closed conditions at Lincoln Prison.

But a jury at Lincoln Crown Court took less than two hours to clear Goodwin of misconduct in public office after a seven day trial.

The jury heard McBride, who was given a life sentence in 1997, was on his regular work placement at the Centenary Methodist Church in Boston when he went missing on June, 25, 2019.

He spent two days at large and was found over 30 miles away travelling in a car in Mablethorpe.

McBride was returned to jail and sentenced to an extra four months imprisonment after he admitted being unlawfully at large.

Richard Thatcher, prosecuting, alleged McBride had been tipped off by Goodwin after he was present at a Governor’s meeting at which his status was discussed.

The prosecution claimed there were also 284 calls or attempted calls between Goodwin and Brian McBride in the three and half months before his escape.

Mr Thatcher asked the jury: “To put it another way 13 and half hours of voice calls.

“What on earth were they talking about?”

But Chris Jeyes, defending Goodwin, told the court there was “no evidence at all” of the content of the conversations between the two men, and described the case as “purely circumstantial.”

Mr Jeyes added that witness accounts of the meeting where McBride’s status was spoken about varied widely on both the content and if indeed Goodwin was present, with poor records kept.

Goodwin chose not to give evidence at his trial, but the jury were told during his police interviews he maintained they engaged in a normal ‘prisoner-prison officer’ relationship.

The court heard a section of his police interviews were also lost after they failed to record.