"Tell Kay."
Myra June Desmond was an inmate and later the top dog at Wentworth Detention Centre.
Myra knew Lou, as Lou was starting secondary school when her daughter Kay started in prep.
Myra worked in the Prison Reform Group before arriving at Wentworth and she is best known for being the 2nd longest running top dog behind Bea Smith.
Myra was known for hating drugs during her time in the prison and she tried her best to stop the drugs trade.
Myra would die in the infamous Wentworth siege where she was one of the victims shot in the siege. Myra put up a brave stand during the siege.
Prison Reform Group[]
We first see Myra Desmond as a PRG representative who visits Wentworth to see Chrissie Latham to try to help her just before Elizabeth is due to be taken away from her at one year old. She isn't actually much help and advises Chrissie that Elizabeth will probably be fostered out. When Myra arrives in reception, she is recognized by Vera Bennett and it is established that Myra had been in Wenwtorth three years previously. Myra also mentions that she has just bought a bookshop with her husband's "insurance". Presumably we are supposed to think that Myra is recently widowed, though she has a husband and family later in the series. (it is possible she re-married or the insurance was for something else in her husbands name)
Myra next appears in (223)-(224), when she looks after Alison Page's children when her husband Don has an accident at work.
She is next seen advising on the print shop project (273)-(274).
The writers must have felt the character was well enough established that they could just refer to her by name without having her appear: there are mentions of her in (293) (setting up of the first Driscoll House), (318) (benefit concert for the house) and (393). Judy Bryant recommends her to take over Driscoll House after Alice Dodds has had a nervous breakdown after being shot, and she goes to investigate the problems in (429) only to turn Judy down because of family problems. Kills her husband (431) and is imprisoned.
Myra becomes top dog. She escapes during the fete to see her daughter Kay and help her come off drugs.
On her return, she falls out with Judy for leaving the women in the lurch and she loses some support when she shows a tendency to bash first and ask questions later, especially for the job she does on Bobbie (492). She steps down as top dog naming Reb Keane as her successor (502) but arranges for Reb to be discredited when she finds out that she is peddling drugs. Takes over again when Reb is sent to Blackmoor (506).
When the male prisoners are transferred from Woodridge, Myra is initially hostile to them, especially Geoff, but she ends up having an affair with him. The scenes of Geoff and Myra in bed together are remembered by Prisoner fans as particularly gruesome.
Attempt to kill her by Lou Kelly during her 40th birthday party (521) but Sam Greenway dies instead when she touches the doorknob connected to the electricity supply.
Attempted to frame Joan Ferguson, lagged on by Anita Selby (535).
Myra later gets killed by terrorists who are hired by her enemy Ruth Ballinger. Her last words were, "Tell Kay that if she needs anything, to contact Geoff. Tell her, I only want—" before the bullet from Max's gun, held to her head, blasts through her brain, rendering her lifeless within seconds, after the siege ends we see Nora staying with Myra's body until it is taken away.
Trivia[]
- It is revealed that Myra was cellmates with Bea Smith before Franky Doyle came to Wentworth.
- When Bea got transferred to Barnhurst for good, Myra said that she visited her there a few times and most of the inmates would be afraid of her as said by Myra.
- Anne Phelan was also seen in Episode 017, playing Officer Manson.
- Anne Phelan appears in Episode 94 bringing food to Bea Smith who has been sent to isolation - but this time as the character Bernadette, a completely different background character.
- Myra appears briefly in episode 577 as a vision in the mind of Reb Kean who is returned from Blackmoor. Reb is looking at the reflection of Nora Flynn and instead sees Myra.