The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has been criticised after a prisoner from Oxford killed himself in a 'safe cell' at Bullingdon Prison.
Daniel Rooney, of Hollow Way, in Cowley, was awaiting sentence at the prison on September 26, 2006, when he was discovered by an officer with a noose around his neck trying to tie it around a light fitting. He was moved to what was thought to be a safer cell and observed three times by prison staff but was still found hanging only an hour after his original suicide attempt at the prison near Bicester.
On Monday, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) issued a formal Crown Censure to NOMS, which runs the prison, for allowing the 38-year-old to die. The father-of-eight, who was also known as John Hughes, was awaiting sentence for burglary when he took his own life.
After being moved to the safer cell, he was still able to make a ligature out of bedding in the cell and fix it to a shower rail support bracket fitted to the wall with screws strong enough to support him.
The HSE said the brackets should have been attached with fixings that could not support Mr Rooney's weight. Examination of the cell after the death identified several points where ligatures could be attached.
Investigations conducted by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman and the coroner were unable to prove when the shower rail was installed, who installed it, who authorised its installation or who checked it had been fitted in an appropriate way in a ‘safer cell’.
HSE’s director for its Southern Division, Heather Bryant, who took the Censure hearing said: “This was an unnecessary tragedy and shows that all refurbishment programmes need to be adequately controlled. The standard in this cell was far below what is appropriate for those vulnerable prisoners in a safer cell.”
The Crown Censure found that on the date of Mr Rooney’s death, NOMS did not comply with Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulation 5(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. NOMS accepted the Crown Censure, and said it had taken action and continued to take action to prevent similar deaths at HMP Bullingdon and other prisons in the future.
