Prison officer accused of performing ‘oral sex on inmate and sending him cards’

A female prison officer has been charged with performing a sex act on an inmate she was supposed to be guarding.

Rebecca Pinckard, 46, is accused of engaging in a relationship with a prisoner at HMP Highpoint a Category C prison in Suffolk.

After being given unconditional bail ahead of her hearing at a Crown Court, she left with her jacket pulled over her head to show a remembrance poppy on her jumper.

Pinckard from Cambridgeshire, was charged with wilful misconduct in public office between April 9 and July 6 last year.

District Judge Matthew Bone said the case needed to be held in Crown Court.

He told her: ‘Your offence is one that can only be dealt with in the Crown Court, and my job today is to send the case there.

‘If you don’t attend court without a good reason, you will be committing an offence. If you commit any offence on bail, it will be treated more seriously.’

Pinckard, appeared in the dock wearing glasses and with her hair tied back.

Court documents allege that between April 9 and July 6, 2024, 46-year-old Pinckard was ‘engaging in a relationship’ with a prisoner, and ‘[sent] a card to that prisoner’.

The documents also allege that Pinckard had ‘performed] oral sex on that prisoner while working as a prison officer’.

A spokesperson for Eastern Region Special Operations Unit said last July that it had been ‘made aware of an alleged inappropriate relationship between a prison officer and inmate at HMP Highpoint in Suffolk’.

The spokesperson confirmed that a woman had been ‘subsequently arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office’ and taken into police custody.

She will appear again for a plea and trial preparation hearing at Cambridge Crown Court on December 3.

HMP Highpoint has had a number of famous prisoners in the past, such as Moors Murderer Myra Hindley and singers George Michael and Boy George.

In 2003, two drug rehabilitation workers were ordered out of the prison after they were confronted with allegations that they had had inappropriate relationships with two male prisoners.