The death of a sex offender murdered by his cellmate might have been avoided if a “bullying marker” had been added to his killer’s file, a Fatal Accident Inquiry has found.
Oban man Colin Penrose, 22, was strangled by John Clark in the cell they shared at Barlinnie Prison on March 20, 2014.
Penrose committed an indecency offence involving a 12-year-old girl when he was 18. He later had unlawful sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 19 and was sent back to prison after being caught downloading child porn while out on licence.
Clark, 22, who was serving 56 months for assault and robbery at an Ayrshire pub, had previously assaulted a fellow inmate who was a sex offender.
Sheriff Principal Craig Turnbull has published his findings following the FAI. He wrote: “A reasonable precaution, whereby the death of Colin Donald Penrose might have been avoided, would have been for a bullying marker to have been added to John Clark’s Risks and Conditions on the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) system as a consequence of the assault he perpetrated at HMYOI Polmont on July 30 2012.”
He also found that prior to Penrose’s death, no adequate guidance or training was available to prison staff in relation to the recording of entries within a prisoner’s Risks and Conditions on the system.
Less than a year prior to his death, the prison service was aware of problems in its computer record system. A report had highlighted that the problems were most acute in relation to bullying, “where entries were generally very poor,” the FAI concluded.
It was found that the SPS did not act in relation to those failures prior to the death of Penrose.
Sheriff Turnbull wrote that there had been: “Only one recorded homicide in a Scottish Prison since 2005.
“That that is the case is in no small part down to the diligence and professionalism of those who work within Scotland’s prisons.”
He continued: “Where circumstances dictate that an individual is deprived of his or her liberty, SPS is under a clear statutory duty to conduct their undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that prisoners are not exposed to risks to their health or safety. The failures noted in this determination, and the failure to act in response to the report prepared by Mr Storer and Mr Davidson are regrettable.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said: “We have to consider very carefully the recommendations and conclusions within the report. We are in the process of doing that.”
