‘Family loyalty’ drove police worker to help killer brother

A POLICE civilian worker used the force computer to help her brother, who was facing a murder charge, find out whether a fellow prisoner was an undercover officer.

Naomi Jayne Buckland, 22, was ready to blow a colleague’s cover out of “misguided family loyalty”, a court heard. Her older sibling Nathan Buckland was in custody awaiting trial for killing a man outside a pub in September 2018 when he begged her for help.

Durham Crown Court heard she began working as a civilian apprentice with Durham Police in June 2018 and had access to the force’s computer system. Days after her brother was arrested on suspicion of murder, she deactivated his Facebook account.

Sam Faulks, prosecuting, said on Oct 22, 2018, she was asked to check if another inmate in the prison where her brother was bring held was an undercover police officer.

In a phone call to her brother, which was recorded, Buckland confirmed the inmate was not a colleague. Mr Faulks made clear this ultimately had no effect on the outcome of her brother’s case. He was cleared of murder but convicted of the manslaughter of Iain Lee and jailed for eight years in March 2019.

Mr Lee, 31, suffered a catastrophic head injury after he was punched to the ground in Newton Aycliffe on Sept 8 2018. He died 11 days later.

Buckland, of Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham, admitted unauthorised computer access. Mark Styles, mitigating, said she was of previous good character,

‘The dire situation he was in led her to do what she did. As a result she lost her job and good name’

adding: “If there was a case of misguided loyalty to a family member, this was it. She was very close to her brother and the dire situation he was in led her to do what she did. As a result she lost her job and good name.”

Buckland was planning to retrain as a mental health nurse, he added.

Judge Ray Singh told her: “This is very serious. The potential of what could have happened is immense.”

Buckland was given a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and a four-month curfew.