EXCLUSIVE: PRISON OFFICER ON RAPE CHARGES
Top security jail warder in court over five attacks
By Mark Lavery (Leeds Today/Evening Post)
19 August 2005

A SENIOR prison officer who works with some of Britain's most serious sex offenders at Wakefield's maximum security jail has been charged with five rapes across Yorkshire.

John David Hall, 34, has also been charged with grievous bodily harm with intent and actual bodily harm.

The YEP understands he is a Principal Officer in charge of a wing at the prison where Soham double child killer Ian Huntley is serving life for the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Hall is alleged to have committed the offences between 1997 and 1999 in the Leeds and York areas.

He was arrested when detectives from the Homicide and Major Enquiry Team swooped at an address in Wakefield on Wednesday. He was charged last night and was due to appear before magistrates at Leeds later today.

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One prison service source told the YEP: "He has a high profile managerial job. He will be in charge of looking after sex offenders and will have overall control of a wing.

"The reaction at the prison will be one of disbelief. He is not a loner, he has worked in the prison service for about 10 years and is a popular guy."

A spokesman for the Prison Service refused to confirm whether Hall has been suspended from his job at Wakefield.

A police spokesman said: "A 34-year-old man from the Wakefield area was arrested in connection with a number of offences of rape and assault."

Wakefield Prison on Love Lane houses some of the country's worst sex offenders. 

Its treatment programme for perverts is regarded as one of the best in the country.

The jail is known as "Monster Mansion" because it holds so many notorious offenders.

Carl Manning, the killer of Victoria Climbie, and Michael Sams, who murdered Leeds teenager Julie Dart, are both inmates.

Roy Whiting, who is serving life for the murder of schoolgirl Sarah Payne, was also held in the jail until he was slashed in the face by another prisoner.

Wakefield jail was the focus of national attention when serial killer GP Harold Shipman hanged himself in his cell last year.

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Warder Faces Rape Rap
The Sun
19 August 2005

A TOP prison officer who works with some of Britain’s worst sex offenders has been charged with five rapes. 

John David Hall, 34, also faces GBH and ABH charges.

The alleged offences date between 1997 and 1999 in Leeds and York.

Hall works at top-security Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire, home to monsters including Soham beast Ian Huntley and serial killer GP Harold Shipman.

Detectives swooped at an address in Wakefield on Wednesday night.

A prison source said Mr Hall, who worked at the jail for ten years, was a “popular guy”.

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