The two-day shoot for the true crime show Deadly Women used Maitland Gaol and East Maitland Court House to recreate scenes involving the former prison nurse and her criminal lover and later husband George Hyatte, who she helped escape after a court hearing.

As the guards walked her husband back to the van to transport him from the Roane County Courthouse in Kingston, Tennessee, in the US in 2005, she opened fire, hitting one of them in the abdomen. The guard, Wayne ‘‘Cotton’’ Morgan, died an hour later. Jennifer Hyatte is serving a life sentence.

Beyond productions produces Deadly Women and is currently shooting its fourth series for the Investigation Discovery Channel in America. The series will later screen on Australia’s Crime and Investigation Channel on Foxtel.

Three women, mostly American, feature in each episode although the Hunter’s Kathleen Folbigg, who killed her four young children, featured in series two.

The fourth series, which will include the Maitland scenes, will screen in America next month.

‘‘Maitland Goal is an amazing resource,’’ Deadly Women series producer Andrew Farrell told The Word.

‘‘It’s hard to find a big jail that’s not full of prisoners. There is nowhere else as good within this range of Sydney.’’

The courthouse shooting scene was filmed at East Maitland Court House from 11am to 1.30pm yesterday.

It was an active scene with residents hearing blank bullets fired.

Maitland Gaol has also been used for filming by soapie Home and Away, many independent films and television shows such as Sunrise.