Matice Adriana Henaway sentenced in Townsville Magistrates Court for staff, prisoner relationship
A cultural development officer said she didn’t know she was breaking the law after her sexual relationship with a man she met in the prison was exposed. Here’s the details.
A Townsville Correctional Centre staff member landed herself in hot water after beginning a sexual relationship with an offender she met while working inside the prison.
Mackay woman Matice Adriana Henaway, 35, appeared in Townsville Magistrates Court on Tuesday after having sex with a man while he was on parole.
Police prosecutor Alice Lane said in February 2021 Henaway began working as a cultural development officer at the Townsville Correctional Centre.
Two months later, the man began serving a prison sentence at the same facility, where he remained for a year until his release in April 2022.
Ms Lane said it was most likely Henaway and the man began a sexual relationship while he was on parole, until he was incarcerated again in May 2023.
“During this time (Henaway) remained employed at Queensland Corrective Services,” Ms Lane said.
She told the court that “even when prisoners are on parole they’re still considered prisoners for the purposes of that legislation”.
In September 2022 Henaway submitted a conflict-of-interest form to Queensland Corrective Services, declaring the man as a close associate of her relative and later denied any romantic relationship.
A later audit found she had been depositing money into his prison account and other external bank accounts.
In January 2024 the man began living with Henaway after she volunteered to sponsor him upon his release from Capricornia Correctional Centre.
Ms Lane said Henaway had also accessed confidential information about three other inmates, two cousins and another person known to her, without approval, using an internal computing system.
Henaway resigned from her role as a cultural development officer in February 2024.
Defence barrister Martin Longhurst described Henaway as a “remarkable woman” who did not realise that having sex with an offender on parole was an offence.
He said her use of the internal database carried no malicious intent.
“My client received very limited training with respect to the conflict of interest policy, she also received very limited training with respect to the boundaries with prisoners,” Mr Longhurst said.
“The important feature in this is there’s no suggestion that this relationship continued in any meaningful way, let alone a sexual intimate way while he was in custody.”
The court heard Henaway is a psychology and criminology student at James Cook University and a mother of two.
Magistrate Viviana Keegan acknowledged that Henaway would have suffered shame and embarrassment as a result of the offence.
Henaway pleaded guilty to prohibition on intimate relationships between staff members and offenders and disobedience to statute law.
She was fined $1500 and no convictions were recorded.
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Originally published as Matice Adriana Henaway sentenced in Townsville Magistrates Court for staff, prisoner relationship
