Former prison officer Christine Robertson has been found guilty of harbouring a known criminal in her house in Monifieth.
A jury took only an hour to find Ms Robertson (45) guilty by a majority of the charge of allowing convicted criminal James Holland to remain in her house to avoid being arrested.
Robertson looked stunned as the jury of eight women and seven men returned their verdict on Wednesday, but remained calm as Sheriff Tom Hughes told her he was remanding her in custody pending reports until next month.
As she was led away, she grimaced at family members and friends but said nothing. Her distraught sister Karen collapsed in tears and had to be helped from the court.
Robertson will return to court on May 16 to be sentenced and now faces a lengthy spell behind bars.
Following the verdict, depute fiscal Douglas Wiseman told the court Robertson was a single woman and was unemployed. He said she was suspended by the prison service for another matter but said she had no previous convictions.
Advocate Jonathan Crowe, for Robertson, appealed for bail for his client, telling the sheriff she had been dismissed from her post following her arrest and subsequent charge.
He said the sheriff would require reports and those would be best attained in her home environment.
Sheriff Hughes told Robertson: ”You have been convicted of a serious offence and as you have no previous convictions I am required to call for reports. You will be remanded in custody meantime.”
She was then handcuffed by a security officer and led away to the cells.
Her sister Karen and her friends were too upset to speak after the case.
Robertson was found guilty of, while knowing James Holland was a convicted prisoner and should not be allowed outwith the prison, allowing him to remain at her address to avoid being apprehended after he absconded and remained at large until March 17 2011, and aiding and abetting Holland in absconding, attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
Robertson denied the offence and lodged a special defence of coercion at Dundee Sheriff Court.
During the trial, the court heard the couple were found naked in bed when the house was raided by police. Questioned by the depute fiscal, Holland agreed that, initially, he had had care or consideration for Robertson, but he also claimed he was ”forced” to respect her, and that respect grew over time.
”It was the kindness she showed me and the helpfulness she showed me,” Holland said. ”Being a female, she is the first female I’ve been in contact with for 26 years.”
Defence advocate Jonathan Crowe had called on the jury to set aside the ”Mills and Boon”-style revelations of the case and to acquit the prison warder.Night with a dangerous criminalA woman who had once guarded the Lockerbie bomber, Christine Robertson was a prison officer with a career stretching 18 and a half years, writes Katie Smyth.
Yet, despite all her experience, Robertson threw caution to the wind the night she decided to allow James Holland into her home.
Serving as his personal prison officer Robertson would have known what deeds Holland was capable of. Throughout the trial Holland was repeatedly described as a seasoned and violent criminal.
As he took the witness stand, the press were ordered to move from the well of the court back into the public gallery. They were warned if Holland kicked off they would be in the firing line.
Led from the cells in handcuffs, he was flanked by three custody officers with a further two police officers on standby.
A man who has spent most of his life inside, Holland had previously taken his fellow prisoner Denis Carr hostage at knifepoint at HMP Saughton.
The five-hour siege is just one in a catalogue of violence.
In 1997 the hardened criminal received a six-year sentence following a hostage-taking at Glenochil Prison, when he and murderer James O’Rourke held prison officer Willie Irvine and nurse Karen Kinnear for 18 hours.
He was then transferred to HMP Perth but the very next day he took a trainee solicitor captive.
Holland has told of his life of crime in two books. One tells how he was born into a family suffering at the hands of a drunk and abusive father. At just two weeks old Holland was placed in care where he was frequently abused and began to turn to a life of crime.
It was this violent fiend Robertson allowed to enter her home.
One Monifieth shop worker spoke of her unease.
She said: ”I’m not very happy to think this criminal was in Monifieth. You don’t think it’s going to happen here really.”
Tom Fox, spokesman for the Scottish Prison Services, said: ”Obviously we expect and the public expect the highest standards from prison officers and when people fail to live up to those standards they have to expect the consequences.
”We do treat such actions very seriously as an organisation and have a very clear code of conduct. When we become aware of any breach of conduct we do investigate it very rigorously.”