Jailer on drug smuggling charges now faces retrial
Jury is discharged after ‘new evidence’ arises
APRISON officer accused of smuggling drugs and booze into the Rochdale prison where he worked will face a re-trial after ‘new evidence has arisen.’
Richard Goss, 45, went on trial at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday denying a total of six offences.
However, on Wednesday the judge discharged the jury saying the case could not continue. Goss will now face a re-trial in Manchester in October.
Recorder Blakey told the jurors: “New evidence has arisen which means we cannot continue this case” before discharging them.
Goss was remanded on unconditional bail until the date of his re-trial.
He denies six charges involving three of conveying articles into prison involving alcohol, mobile phones, components and a hard drive, syringes and needless intending them to come into the possession of a prisoner. The other three charges are supplying cannabis, testosterone and oxymetholene.
John Richards, prosecuting, had told jurors that a routine check in the laundry at HMP Buckley Hall prison on Christmas Eve 2019 revealed an illegal consignment of alcohol, various drugs, tobacco, phones, syringes and needles hidden in a dryer. Suspicion fell on Goss, who was on night duty that night including delivering mail.
When told he would be investigated he claimed he had been acting under duress after he and his family had been threatened.
He was arrested and when interviewed “denied bringing any prohibited articles into the prison but accepted moving the articles from an enclosed area by the mess hall onto ‘B’ wing during his night shift on 24th-25th December 2019.
“He said he had not brought them in but over them from A to B within the prison. He stated that he had done this due to him being threatened by an unknown male, with a Liv
erpudlian accent, who confronted him outside his home on the morning of Christmas Eve.
“He told the police this male had known the names of his partner and daughter and threatened their safety if he did not move the prohibited articles from an
enclosed area onto ‘B’ wing.
“He placed the items in the dryer and informed a particular prisoner of his actions as instructed. He said he did so “as he feared for his and his family’s lives.”
When he was re-interviewed in July 2020 and was shown the CCTV showing
he had not collected the items from the mess hall he changed his account, “saying he actually collected the items from a locker room situated within the administration block of the prison prior to delivering the post across the prison.” He claimed the items had been
brought into the prison by a female prison officer, whom he named, alleged Mr Richards.
Goss, 45, of Esmount Drive, Middleton, was further remanded on unconditional bail to face a re-trial at Manchester Crown Court beginning on October 29.