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Abusive prison officer Gary Bridge escapes jail sentence
7:41am Saturday 27th June 2009

By Megi Rychlikova »

A FORMER prisoner cried out in disbelief as the ex-prison guard tormentor who turned her freedom into a years-long nightmare walked free from court.

Gary Bridge, 55, got to know the woman while he was a prison officer at Askham Grange Prison where she was an inmate serving time for fraud, Sharon Beatie for the Crown Prosecution Service told York Crown Court.

He broke prison service regulations forbidding relationships between guards and prisoners and continued seeing her after she was released.

In the years that followed, he, among other incidents:

* Held an air rifle to her face and threatened “I am going to kill you, you are going to get it” while her daughter watched.

* Falsely imprisoned her in her home while he interrogated her for hours about her personal life and repeatedly swung a claw hammer towards her head.

* Broke her arm with a champagne bottle.

* Bugged her telephone line and recorded her calls.

* Sprayed CS gas in her face.

* Grabbed her round the neck.

But because he had not committed similar offences against other women before or afterwards and was suffering at the time from two mental illnesses which were exacerbated by his sacking from the prison service over his relationship with the former prisoner, Recorder Paul Sloan QC did not make him serve a 16-month prison sentence.

“Because of the combination of circumstances, which I regard as exceptional, I am prepared to suspend the sentence,” the judge said.

He said the mental illnesses were post-traumatic stress syndrome caused by “dreadful experiences at work” and severe depression resulting from the break-up of Bridge’s 20-year-old marriage.

Bridge, of Ripley Castle village, near Harrogate, pleaded guilty to falsely imprisoning the woman, threatening to kill her, affray and three charges of actual bodily harm. Two charges of raping the woman, which he denied, were left on file which means they will appear on his criminal record, but not as convictions. He must pay £500 towards the prosecution costs.

After the judge suspended the prison sentence for two years, the woman, who at one time lived near York and later near Selby, cried out in distress and left the public gallery.

Miss Beatie said the offences occurred between 2001 and 2004.

For Bridge, solicitor advocate Richard Reed said since the relationship ended Bridge had overcome his mental illnesses, got a new job, and was now in a stable relationship.

Tagged with: actual bodily harm • affray • air rifle • askham grange • beatie • castle village • champagne bottle • claw hammer • crown prosecution service • cs gas • gary bridge • megi • mental illnesses • paul sloan • post traumatic stress • post traumatic stress syndrome • prison officer • prison service • severe depression • traumatic stress syndrome

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