A prison officer’s life unraveled when he was caught running a contraband-smuggling operation on Christmas Day.
Richard Goss, 45, initially tried to shift blame onto an innocent colleague after officers discovered a stash of alcohol, drugs, tobacco, phones, syringes, and needles in the prison’s laundry room at HMP Buckley Hall in Rochdale, Manchester.
Investigators quickly identified Goss, who had been on duty that night, as the prime suspect. Confronted with the evidence, Goss partially confessed, claiming he was acting under duress, reports the Mirror.
Prosecutors called this a “desperate” excuse, pointing out that Goss had been messaging a woman on the dating app Plenty of Fish at the time he claimed to have been threatened. During his February trial at Liverpool Crown Court, “new evidence” surfaced, causing the jury to be discharged and leading to a re-trial.
However, on October 29, Goss changed his plea, admitting to six charges: three counts of supplying drugs and three counts of smuggling contraband into the prison. He was sentenced to four years and two months at Manchester Crown Court.
The court heard that Goss, from Esmount Drive, Middleton, joined the prison service in April 2015, completing an intensive ten-week training program before transferring to HMP Buckley Hall, a Category C men’s prison in Rochdale, later that year.
Jurors were told that on Christmas Eve 2019, prison officers conducted a search of ‘B’ wing’s laundry room following the lockdown of inmates and found nothing suspicious. However, the next morning, another officer searched the room before prisoners were released and found two plastic drink bottles and three Tetra Pak cartons inside a dryer.
These contained 18 wraps of brown resin, a wrap of herbal cannabis, 3 0 wraps of tobacco, three liters of alcohol, steroids in both tablet and liquid form, three iPhones with chargers, security tools, syringes, needles, and Rizla papers.
An investigation was launched, including a review of CCTV footage, which showed Goss on duty from Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. He was seen entering ‘B’ wing around 9:45 pm while delivering post and carrying a rucksack and plastic bag from his car into the laundry room. Goss was suspended on December 30, 2019, and upon receiving the news, he claimed his “family was under threat.”
During his arrest and interview, Goss initially denied smuggling contraband but admitted to accessing an enclosed area near the mess hall and entering ‘B’ wing during his shift. He claimed he had done this under threat from an “unknown male with a Liverpudlian accent,” who allegedly confronted him outside his home on Christmas Eve morning.
In a follow-up interview in July 2020, when shown CCTV evidence disproving his story about retrieving the items from the mess hall, Goss changed his account. He then claimed he had collected the items from a locker room in the prison’s administration block before delivering the post. He also accused a female prison officer, whom he named, of smuggling the items into the prison.
In a third interview in October 2020, Goss further claimed that the man who threatened him was associated with two inmates and that the female officer was in an inappropriate relationship with one of them.
John Richards, prosecuting, stated: “The Crown says this was an attempt by the defendant to shift the blame to another officer.” He also noted that when CCTV and automatic number plate recognition were checked to trace the vehicle Goss claimed his alleged intimidator had used, the search yielded no results.
Evidence from Goss’s hire car and mobile phone revealed that on Christmas Eve morning, he parked outside his home at 7:27 am and, five minutes later, began messaging a woman he had met on the dating site Plenty of Fish.
“This is completely inconsistent with his claim of being threatened outside his home,” Mr. Richards stated. “The Crown argues that his story of being coerced into smuggling items is a desperate and demonstrably false lie, with no evidence to support his account. His changing story and behavior clearly show he’s not telling the truth.”
A proceeds of crime hearing in Goss’s case is scheduled for March 19 next year. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The vast majority of our prison staff are hardworking and honest, and we are committed to rooting out those who are not. We are reinforcing our Counter-Corruption Unit and strengthening our vetting processes.
“We are working to reform our prisons and combat the drug trade inside them, helping offenders turn away from crime and ensuring the safety of our staff.”