Queensland female prison guard’s steamy texts to prisoners

A female prison guard has been fined after she had relationships with two former inmates – with explicit pictures of the men later found by police on mobile phones.

Katherine Fosdick, 28, pleaded guilty at Hervey Bay Magistrates Court in southern Queensland to having an intimate relationship with both prisoners. 

She was working as a guard at Maryborough Correctional Centre when she struck up relationships with the two men. 

Matthew Robert Lyons and Charles Alfred Pawney were released from prison at the time of the relationships but were still completing sentences in the community. 

Pawney had an ankle monitor when he met Fosdick, after he had been jailed in 2019 for his role in the kidnapping and torture of a man over $30,000 in missing drugs.

Katherine Fosdick (right), 28, pleaded guilty at Hervey Bay Magistrates Court in southern Queensland to having an intimate relationship with two prisoners including Charles Alfred Pawney (left)

Pawney had an ankle monitor when he met Fosdick, after he had been jailed in 2019 for his role in the kidnapping and torture of a man over $30,000 in missing drugs

His ankle monitor indicated he was spending a ‘significant’ amount of time at the same Hervey Bay address. 

On October 14, 2022, detectives from the Corrective Services Investigation Unit were told that Fosdick was engaging in inappropriate relationships with prisoners.

A day later, Fosdick and Pawney were seen at a chicken shop ‘displaying signs of physical affection, holding hands, touching each other as though they were in a relationship’.

That same day, they were found at a Hervey Bay home on the sofa.

After seizing their phones, detectives found photos of the two of them hugging and kissing, as well as sexually explicit images with one showing Pawney using a sex aid.

Meanwhile, a search of Lyon’s phone revealed a sexually explicit video taken by Fosdick of him standing in her bathroom naked, ‘swinging’ his genitals.

In a police interview, she admitted to being in an intimate relationship with Pawney, but insisted they had ‘met on Tinder’.

She denied having known him when he was in custody at the jail and insisted they first met in person on a beach in September.

In a police interview, she admitted to being in an intimate relationship with Pawney, but insisted they had ‘met on Tinder’

Fosdick said she saw the ankle monitor but claimed she thought it was okay to be in a relationship with Pawney as he wasn’t in jail.

Lyons, who was convicted by the Supreme Court on drug trafficking in 2018, was in a relationship with Fosdick for ‘one to two months’ while he was on parole, she said. 

She broke off the relationship before dating Pawney, who she remains in a relationship with. 

Pawney was 22 when he pleaded guilty to burglary, four counts of assault occasioning bodily harm, wilful damage, stealing, kidnapping for ransom, kidnapping and torture.

The couple have shared photos of themselves together on social media. 

Fosdick had no prior criminal history, resigned from her job at the jail, and is currently working in traffic control.

She wanted to work in government and her lawyers said a conviction would make it difficult for her to get the role.  

Magistrate Trinity McGarvie said in her role, Fosdick had been in a position of trust and was expected to uphold community expectations.

After seizing their phones, detectives found photos of the two of them hugging and kissing, as well as sexually explicit images with one showing Pawney using a sex aid

‘You chose to be involved with two offenders who were serving terms of imprisonment within the community,’ she said, according to the Courier Mail.

‘There’s no suggestion you were engaged in any improper conduct in your role when you were serving at the correctional centre and that’s a significant distinction from the other cases that commonly come before the court of this nature.

‘There is no allegation that you were in a position of power over these offenders that you could in any way act in a way that would assist them in their incarceration or assist them with their performance on parole.’

Fosdick was fined $3,000 and no convictions were recorded.