Doncaster prison worker who shared inmate information jailed

A prison staff member who shared information about an inmate with a friend has been jailed for 21 months.

Courtney Harrison, an administrative staff member at HMP Moorland, near Doncaster, shared details about prisoner George Tunney in 2023, which later ended up being shared to Tunney’s phone.

Harrison, 27, of Edlington, was jailed at Sheffield Crown Court after admitting misconduct in a public office and unauthorised access to computer material.

She had also searched for the files of high-profile murderers Lucy Letby, Harold Shipman and Rose West, which Recorder of Sheffield Judge Jeremy Richardson described as “completely improper”.

But the “really serious aspect” of her offending was related to the Tunney searches, he said.

Harrison’s friend and former colleague had “some sort of connection” to the inmate, the judge said, and had asked her to share confidential information about him over email.

“[Harrison] is not a woman with great confidence and could not reject the somewhat predatory request of this woman,” he added.

She had seen the friend as a “sister” and had a “desperation to maintain a friendship” with her, the court heard.

Tunney absconded soon after receiving the information for a number of weeks and was later found in the south of England, the court heard, although there was “no direct evidence” that the information had helped him to do so.

Judge Richardson said Harrison was “very young”, having been aged 23 at the time of offending, and was “immature and lonely”.

But he said an “example had to be made” when prison officials breached the “considerable responsibility and trust” placed in them.

“It is a very sad day when somebody like you needs to be sent to prison, but good people on occasions commit wrongs, and the wrongs you committed were criminal and they were serious,” he told Harrison.