Ms Connors has been suspended and Penisini has been transferred. Photo / The Daily Telegraph
Ms Connors has been suspended and Penisini has been transferred. Photo / The Daily Telegraph
A female prison guard has been charged with "misconduct in public office" after an alleged sexual relationship with a notorious cop killer.
Sione Penisini, who shot and killed police officer Glenn McEnallay in 2002, was transferred from the Mid North Coast Correctional Centre in NSW in June after allegations of a sexual relationship between him and prison guard Amy Connors.
Ms Connors, 34, was suspended amid claims she was having sex with Penisini, who is serving a 36-year sentence.
Today, NSW Police announced officers arrested a 34-year-old woman — understood to be Ms Connors — at a home in Smithtown.
"A Corrective Services NSW employee has been charged following an investigation into misconduct within a correctional facility on the Mid North Coast last month," a spokesman for the force said this morning in a statement.
"Last week, detectives from the Corrective Services Investigation Unit received a referral from Corrective Services NSW regarding allegations of criminal misconduct of an employee."
The allegations have angered Senior Constable McEnallay's mother.
"I just couldn't believe that something like this could happen within a prison system," Judy McEnallay-Mulheron told Channel 7.
"It can't just be the two people within the prison that knew it — there has to be other people who have known about this who covered the whole situation up.
"This makes you angry more than anything. The system has let everybody down."
Corrective Services has suspended Amy Connors (right). Photo / News Corp Australia
Corrective Services was understood to be powerless to charge either Penisini or Ms Connors with any criminal offence.
"It is not a criminal act, but it is a breach of the code of conduct,'' NSW Corrections Minister David Elliott told The Daily Telegraph last week.
However, it was understood Mr Elliott's office was looking into ways to make sex between prisoners and staff a criminal offence.
Today, he welcomed news of the arrest in Smithtown.
"I welcome this development," he told 2GB. "I maintain my support for establishing a statutory offence covering inappropriate relationships between an inmate and a prison officer."
The woman was taken to Kempsey Police Station and issued a Court Attendance Notice for misconduct in public office and larceny.
Police will allege in court that between 2 and 22 July 2018, the woman passed sensitive information to prisoners, engaged in an intimate relationship with a prisoner, and failed to disclose a conflict of interest, relating to her duties at a correctional facility on the Mid North Coast.
Further, the woman also collected a parcel from a post box in June, which was addressed to someone else, and allegedly kept the contents of the package.
