A HAMPSHIRE MP has vowed to confront prosecutors over the case of a woman accused of having sex with a convicted murderer while he was in prison.

Eastleigh MP Mims Davies is demanding answers over the way the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) handled the case of former nurse Tanya McCarthy, who was charged with misconduct in public office.

Ms McCarthy (below), one of Ms Davies’s constituents, denied having a sexual liaison with Daniel McBride, who killed his victim with a shampoo bottle.

Hampshire Chronicle:

As reported by the Chronicle, the CPS did a u-turn and abandoned the case against her this week after admitting it was unable to prove she was holding public office at the time.

It is the second case involving allegations of an “inappropriate relationship” between a Winchester Prison visitor and an inmate to be dropped this year.

Estelle Sandles, 72, of Droxford, was alleged to have become too close to convicted rapist Paul Kent while she was Visitors Co-ordinator at the jail. But the case was abandoned after the CPS conceded that she, too, was not in public office.

Now Eastleigh’s MP has pledged to raise the issue with the CPS and senior managers at the prison.

Ms Davies told the Chronicle: “While the rest of public bodies are actively seeking best value for taxpayers the CPS should highly scrutinise how a large amount of public money can be wasted.

“In the light of these two cases I will be asking some tough questions.”

It follows similar comments made earlier this week by the Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA), a coalition of 80 organisations committed to improving the criminal justice system.

A CJA spokesman said: “It seems deeply unfortunate that a substantial amount of public money has been invested in two cases that appear to have had no firm basis."

The CJA spoke out after the Chronicle highlighted the issue.

Ms McCarthy, 33, of Ruskin Road, Eastleigh, was accused of having an "inappropriate relationship" with McBride while he was on remand for the murder of Majella Lynch.

She died two days after he inserted a shampoo bottle inside 51-year-old Majella with such force that it tore through her organs and into her abdomen. He was found guilty of her murder in July and jailed for 29 years.

Ms McCarthy, pictured below, appeared at Basingstoke Magistrates’ Court this week and denied having a sexual liaison with the killer.

And prosecutor James Burnham dropped the case after admitting there was insufficient evidence to prove that her job as a nurse, which she has since lost, would be considered a public office.

The CPS made similar comments after dropping the case against Ms Sandles, who had denied having a relationship with Kent.

But Kate Brown, chief prosecutor for the CPS, hit back at the comments made by Ms Davies.

She said: “We do not accept that the CPS does not seek best value for tax payers and the implication that we do not scrutinise the money we spent.

“Cases of misconduct in public office and in particular establishing whether a person holds a public office are complex.

“When Ms Sandles initially appeared in the magistrates’ court there was an indication that there would be a guilty plea to the charge.

“Subsequently Ms Sandles changed her representation and we were asked to consider the decision again.

“We were provided with representations that questioned whether her position as prison visitor meant that she was holding a public office.

“In accordance with our duty of continuous review we considered the case again in view of the representations and concluded there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction and stopped the case.

“In the case of Ms McCarthy we were able to withdraw the proceedings at the first hearing.

“We decided that there was insufficient evidence at this stage to prove that Ms McCarthy held a ‘public office’ in which she would have been discharging or fulfilling a responsibility of government and therefore we withdrew the proceedings.”

HM Prison Service declined to comment.