Former inmate says ex-guard forced her to perform sex act

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A woman has told jurors that a former guard at a Pennsylvania prison coerced her into performing a sex act on him while he stood outside her cell in 2009.

George McHale is the first of seven former guards to head to trial on charges of sexually abusing female inmates at the Lackawanna County Prison. They were charged last February after a grand jury found what it described as a culture of sexual coercion and cover-up at the jail in Scranton.

A 49-year-old woman told jurors Tuesday that McHale made her fondle him through a slot in the cell door. She says she didn’t tell anyone at the prison because she was afraid of retaliation.

The defense calls the woman a liar.