Systemic failings contributed to boy’s death

originally published:
13th November 2009

The prison service will be heavily criticised by an official report into the death of a child who hanged himself while in custody following a string of failures, the Guardian has learned.

The report finds that officers failed to try to immediately resuscitate Liam McManus, 15, after he was discovered in his cell at Lancaster Farms young offenders institution in November 2007. The prison service’s rules order that officers must do so, but they lacked the training.

The report by the “utterly dismayed” prisons and probation ombudsman also finds that crucial minutes elapsed before officers called an ambulance. The report is due to be published next year.

Liam was the 30th youngster in state custody to have taken his or her life since 1990. Campaigners today called for a public inquiry into the jailing of children after an inquest jury yesterday found that “systemic failings” contributed to Liam’s death.

The end of the inquest clears the way for the report from Stephen Shaw, the prisons and probation ombudsman.

Shaw concludes various failings contributed to the death, saying: “I am also utterly dismayed by the failure to attempt to revive Liam as soon as he was found hanging, despite the fact his body was still warm, and by the failure to call an ambulance promptly.”

Read full article >

Other News:

Care teams blamed for boy’s death
13th November 2009

The full text of the jury’s six page narrative verdict into the death of Liam McManus can be downloaded here (PDF file)
date unknown

Posted by Larry Fedja on 17/11/2009. Filed under Prison Deaths. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry