Sheldon Woolford – Inquest critical of HMP Winchester regime

A jury has returned a highly critical findings in the inquest into the death of 24 year old Sheldon Woodford, in a case in which Karen Rogers of Tuckers’ Civil Liberties team was instructed on behalf of the family.

Sheldon Woodford was found hanging in his cell in HMP Winchester on 9 March 2015 and was pronounced dead at hospital on 12 March 2015.  After a two-week inquest, the jury found that lack of staff, training and consistent care across the prison and healthcare led to a failure to spot obvious and escalating patterns of risk regarding Sheldon’s self-harm.

Karen added; “The failure to properly implement ACCT procedures in this case was shocking. The evidence showed there was far too much reliance on prisoners’ self-report, and insufficient attention paid to obvious and escalating risks of self-harm.”

Full details of this case can be found on the Inquest website here and has been reported in the national media here