A prison officer plied inmates with cocaine after becoming friends with a vicious killer.
Heather McKenzie, 31, was working as an operations officer at HMP Shotts, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, when she started smuggling drugs in for prisoners, including Zak Malavin who is serving time for murder.
Suspicions began to grow after the amount of drugs found in the prison with information soon leading to them suspecting McKenzie, Glasgow Live reports.
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A month later after finding 5.7g of cocaine and calls and texts to McKenzie police decided to act.
They raided her home in Forth, Lanarkshire, Scotland in October 2020 finding mobile phones, syringes, steroids, cocaine, benzocaine as well as £2,500 cash.
(Image: PA)
An iPhone found showed a WhatsApp call from a contact under the name of ‘Zak’.
Analysis of the phone found a number of messages McKenzie and Zak Malavin who along with his brother stabbed Andrew Curran to death in Glasgow in April 2010.
The messages revealed that the pair met with criminals to be given drugs, phones and money.
Evidence also pointed to McKenzie being paid to keep the supply of drugs going, storing them near Malavin’s cell.
She admitted to supplying Malavin and others with drugs in HMP Shotts between March and October 2020 at the High Court, Lanark.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) said: “We do not comment on individual cases.
“The vast majority of our staff work to the highest standard of conduct at all times.
“If it is alleged that staff are involved in any illegal activity, the incident would be reported to Police Scotland for an independent investigation.”
Judge David Young KC chose to defer the sentence of McKenzie, who is a first-time offender sentence and continued bail.
She will be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on February 23.
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