Connect with us

Published

on

Scarlett Roberts’ diary of her four months inside a women’s jail last year is a rare and shocking account of mostly male prison officers allegedly abusing their power over women.

One extract reads: “14th of May, cell 19 after lunch at 12:30. Two officers were arguing with her. She was not violent… There were seven officers in the end, all restraining her in her cell. No officers put bodycams on. One officer kicked her in the chest.”

Her account details the alleged treatment of a youth offender in a cell next door.

Scarlett recalls: “They folded her in two, they brought her arms up behind her back until she was screaming. Then the senior officer kicked her in the chest right before they closed the door. They didn’t let her out for 48 hours.”

She is choosing to speak out about her experience despite the stigma of being a former prisoner.

Her testimony comes on the day a government report into women’s prisons makes eight recommendations that recognise that the Prison Service currently does not offer the support needed for women.

It comes as self-harm rates among female prisoners continue to soar – up 63% this year according to the latest government “safety in custody” statistics.

Scarlett tells Sky News the conditions at the prison were "inhuman" Pic: Andy Portch
Image:
Scarlett tells Sky News the conditions at HMP Eastwood Park were ‘inhuman’. Pic: Andy Portch

Officers showed ‘no compassion’ to prisoners

Scarlett was jailed in HMP Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire for perverting the course of justice.

An inspectorate report of the jail earlier this year said levels of self-harm there were “the highest of all women’s prisons”.

It also noted two recent self-inflicted deaths – with two more yet-to-be-classified deaths mentioned in a progress report this September.

Scarlett says conditions in the jail are “not fit for purpose” to ensure the safety and rehabilitation of women prisoners.

She alleges that male staff used disproportionate force against women prisoners to keep them in check and they would also withdraw meals or medical attention as punishment for troublemakers.

She said prisoner self-harm was rife and officers showed no compassion.

“One lady had self-harmed significantly,” she recounts. “There was a lot of blood, and they didn’t dress the wound. They didn’t cover it up. She was bleeding and they gave her a bowl to bleed in. They were like, ‘there you go’.

“When they opened the door, she threw it in distress and as a result got days added on to her sentence.”

The inspectorate report published in February said Eastwood Park had extreme levels of self-harm, a lack of clinical supervision, and acute staff shortages.

It also stated: “The number of times force had been used against women had increased significantly and we were not confident it was always used as a last resort.”

The report added: “The cells were appalling, dilapidated and covered in graffiti, one was blood-splattered, and some had extensive scratches on the walls which reflected the degree of trauma previous residents must have experienced.

“No prisoner should be held in such conditions, let alone women who were acutely unwell and in great distress.”

Staff shortages meant women didn’t spend enough time out of their cells, the report also said.

A cell door at HMP Eastwood Park Pic: HM Inspectorate of Prisons
Image:
A cell door at HMP Eastwood Park. Pic: HM Inspectorate of Prisons

Prisoners ‘caged for 23 hours a day’

A subsequent progress report found limited improvements – but some things had gotten worse.

For example, the use of force had increased in the last 10 months.

The conditions are “so inhuman”, Scarlett said.

She added: “You are caged for 23 hours a day – and that’s if there is enough staff to let you out even for one hour. So many days they were like ‘we don’t have enough staff, so no one is getting out today’. And in a space I couldn’t even open my arms wide.”

Clothes and sanitary products also seemed to be in short supply.

Scarlett says she didn’t have underwear for weeks, and had little help from the officer on call when she had her period.

She told Sky News: “He just didn’t know what a tampon was. So, I had to explain to him what they were and then he came back with big sanitary pads and then I had to explain I’m not wearing any underwear.”

Scarlett Roberts was jailed for perverting the course of justice Pic: Andy Portch
Image:
Scarlett Roberts was jailed for perverting the course of justice. Pic: Andy Portch

‘You’re watching your life fall apart’

Scarlett is now an exercise physiologist and founded Red: Redemption CIC to provide movement for mental health services for those at risk of self-medication, self-harm and suicidal behaviours.

She’s also written a blog about her experience.

She described how her mental health deteriorated during her four months of incarceration, and you can almost see it illustrated in the way she crossed off the days in her pocket calendar with increasing pressure in the strokes – the last pages are multiple thick lines.

Scarlett said: “Prison should be like a scaffolding is to a building – that it’s a structure, a temporary structure, to help you build a better life for when you come out.

“Instead, it’s a cage – being put in the crumbling building – you’re watching your life fall apart.

“I mean there’s nothing you can do. And then one day you are released, and you are just in the rubble.”

Commenting on this interview, a Prison Service spokesperson said: “Custody is a last resort for women and the number of women in prison has fallen by a quarter since 2010.

“We are investing up to £14m to improve the safety and rehabilitation of women so they can turn their backs on crime for good – including specialist self-harm training for staff, improved mental health services and help into work on release.”

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

But the government report published by NHS England on Thursday admitted “the prison environment is experienced as unfit for purpose by many women and health and social care providers”.

It recommends a number of measures including “providing specialist care, support and treatment for women that meet their unique needs, including for example pregnancy and the menopause“.

Recognising that a high number of women in prison are vulnerable and living with trauma, it says the service needs to improve access to services such as talking therapies, and acknowledges prisons are ill-equipped to provide the necessary treatment and care for acutely mentally ill women.

Read more:
Low-level offenders to be freed early to make room in prisons
Should pregnant women be spared jail?
One of UK’s oldest jails ‘unfit’ and ‘inhumane’

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

‘A lot of prisons not fit for purpose’

Scarlett believes a much more radical overhaul is needed, including a review of what she describes as an “us and them” relationship between the prison officers and the inmates.

She says: “It’s right to remove people’s freedoms – but a judge does that. That’s what he did with me – he removed my freedom for a period of time – that’s my punishment.

“It is not other people’s job to further punish you by weaponising access to basic necessities – such as healthcare, food – because they see fit or because they personally want to.”

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK.

Continue Reading

UK

At least 13 postmasters may have taken their own lives, public inquiry into Post Office scandal finds

Published

on

By

At least 13 postmasters may have taken their own lives, public inquiry into Post Office scandal finds

At least 13 postmasters may have taken their own lives after being accused of wrongdoing based on evidence from the Horizon IT system that the Post Office and developers Fujitsu knew could be false, the public inquiry has found.

A further 59 people told the inquiry they considered ending their lives, 10 of whom tried on at least one occasion, while other postmasters and family members recount suffering from alcoholism and mental health disorders including anorexia and depression, family breakup, divorce, bankruptcy and personal abuse.

Follow latest on public inquiry into Post Office scandal

Writing in the first volume of the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry report, chairman Sir Wyn Williams concludes that this enormous personal toll came despite senior employees at the Post Office knowing the Horizon IT system could produce accounts “which were illusory rather than real” even before it was rolled out to branches.

Sir Wyn said: “I am satisfied from the evidence that I have heard that a number of senior, and not so senior, employees of the Post Office knew or, at the very least, should have known that Legacy Horizon was capable of error… Yet, for all practical purposes, throughout the lifetime of Legacy Horizon, the Post Office maintained the fiction that its data was always accurate.”

Referring to the updated version of Horizon, known as Horizon Online, which also had “bugs errors and defects” that could create illusory accounts, he said: “I am satisfied that a number of employees of Fujitsu and the Post Office knew that this was so.”

The first volume of the report focuses on what Sir Wyn calls the “disastrous” impact of false accusations made against at least 1,000 postmasters, and the various redress schemes the Post Office and government has established since miscarriages of justice were identified and proven.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

‘It stole a lot from me’

Recommendations regarding the conduct of senior management of the Post Office, Fujitsu and ministers will come in a subsequent report, but Sir Wyn is clear that unjust and flawed prosecutions were knowingly pursued.

“All of these people are properly to be regarded as victims of wholly unacceptable behaviour perpetrated by a number of individuals employed by and/or associated with the Post Office and Fujitsu from time to time and by the Post Office and Fujitsu as institutions,” he says.

What are the inquiry’s recommendations?

Calling for urgent action from government and the Post Office to ensure “full and fair compensation”, he makes 19 recommendations including:

• Government and the Post Office to agree a definition of “full and fair” compensation to be used when agreeing payouts
• Ending “unnecessarily adversarial attitude” to initial offers that have depressed the value of payouts, ⁠and ensuring consistency across all four compensation schemes
• The creation of a standing body to administer financial redress to people wronged by public bodies
• Compensation to be extended to close family members of those affected who have suffered “serious negative consequences”
• The Post Office, Fujitsu and government agreeing a programme for “restorative justice”, a process that brings together those that have suffered harm with those that have caused it

Regarding the human impact of the Post Office’s pursuit of postmasters, including its use of unique powers of prosecution, Sir Wyn writes: “I do not think it is easy to exaggerate the trauma which persons are likely to suffer when they are the subject of criminal investigation, prosecution, conviction and sentence.”

He says that even the process of being interviewed under caution by Post Office investigators “will have been troubling at best and harrowing at worst”.

Read more:
Post Office inquiry lays bare heart-breaking legacy – analysis

‘Hostile and abusive behaviour’

The report finds that those wrongfully convicted were “subject to hostile and abusive behaviour” in their local communities, felt shame and embarrassment, with some feeling forced to move.

Detailing the impact on close family members of those prosecuted, Sir Wyn writes: “Wives, husbands, children and parents endured very significant suffering in the form of distress, worry and disruption to home life, in employment and education.

“In a number of cases, relationships with spouses broke down and ended in divorce or separation.

“In the most egregious cases, family members themselves suffered psychiatric illnesses or psychological problems and very significant financial losses… their suffering has been acute.”

The report includes 17 case studies of those affected by the scandal including some who have never spoken publicly before. They include Millie Castleton, daughter of Lee Castleton, one of the first postmasters prosecuted.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Three things you need to know about Post Office report

She told the inquiry how her family being “branded thieves and liars” affected her mental health, and contributed to a diagnosis of anorexia that forced her to drop out of university.

Her account concludes: “Even now as I go into my career, I still find it so incredibly hard to trust anyone, even subconsciously. I sabotage myself by not asking for help with anything.

“I’m trying hard to break this cycle but I’m 26 and am very conscious that I may never be able to fully commit to natural trust. But my family is still fighting. I’m still fighting, as are many hundreds involved in the Post Office trial.”

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the inquiry’s report “marks an important milestone for sub-postmasters and their families”.

He added that he was “committed to ensuring wronged sub-postmasters are given full, fair, and prompt redress”.

“The recommendations contained in Sir Wyn’s report require careful reflection, including on further action to complete the redress schemes,” Mr Reynolds said.

“Government will promptly respond to the recommendations in full in parliament.”

Post Office minister Gareth Thomas said, “Sir Wyn’s report highlights a series of failings by the Post Office and various governments. His recommendations are immensely helpful as a guide for what is needed to finish the job”.

Continue Reading

UK

Norman Tebbit: Margaret Thatcher loyalist and IRA bombing survivor forever associated with ‘on yer bike’ catchphrase

Published

on

By

Norman Tebbit: Margaret Thatcher loyalist and IRA bombing survivor forever associated with 'on yer bike' catchphrase

Lord Tebbit of Chingford was one of Margaret Thatcher’s staunchest “true blue” political allies and the survivor of an IRA bombing in 1984.

Tributes have been paid to the former Tory minister – following his death at the age of 94 – as a leading political voice throughout the turbulent 1980s, entering the cabinet as employment secretary and leaving six years later as Conservative Party chairman.

He would forever be associated with the “on yer bike” catchphrase, as well as controversially having claimed a large proportion of Britain’s Asian population failed to pass the “cricket test”.

Norman Tebbit
Image:
Norman Tebbit has died at the age of 94. Pic: PA

Norman Beresford Tebbit was born in Ponders End, a working-class suburb of north London, on 29 March 1931 to Leonard and Edith Tebbit.

In 1942, he joined Edmonton County Grammar School before leaving at the age of 16 to work for the Financial Times, a job that would foment the anti-trade union politics he became known for when he joined parliament decades later, aged 39.

Before entering Westminster, Lord Tebbit trained as a pilot with the RAF – at one point narrowly escaping from the burning cockpit of a jet. He had a hunch, however, that it was a career in frontline politics that would define his life.

As a working-class boy from north London – and not a “knight from the shires” he thought composed so much of the Conservative Party – he rose up the ranks to serve in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet.

In one of the many interviews he gave about his life over the years, Lord Tebbit spoke with pride about his ability to retain a “line of communication” with “those people” who came from humble backgrounds such as his.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with Cabinet colleagues at a press conference in London, where she presented her party's manifesto for the forthcoming General Election.   * L-R (back row): Norman Tebbit (Employment), Sir Geoffrey Howe (Chancellor), Francis Pym (Foreign Secretary), Michael Heseltine (Defence), and Tom King (Environment). L-R (front row): William Whitelaw (Home Secretary), Thatcher, and party Chairman Cecil Parkinson.
Image:
Norman Tebbit (back left) with Margaret Thatcher at the launch of the 1983 Tory manifesto. Pic: PA

“I’m still proud of the fact that when I walk down the road there’s often a shout from the bus or the lorry or the building site: ”ere, Norm, ‘ow ya doin’, mate?’ he told the Independent in 1993, a year after he stood down as the MP for Chingford. “And I’m proud of that because it means that I’ve got a line of communication to those people.”

‘Chingford skinhead’

It was perhaps Lord Tebbit’s ability to communicate in the same language as “those people” that earned him the reputation of a plain-speaking populist on the Conservative right, or the “Chingford skinhead”.

His most prized position in the cabinet was, however, that of Mrs Thatcher’s right-hand man and loyal attack dog, which the satirists at Spitting Image conveyed by kitting out Lord Tebbit in black leather and bovver boots used to discipline any cabinet minister who did not toe the party line.

His hard-line stance became useful to Mrs Thatcher when she was determined to take on the unions in the 1980s. It was a mission that saw Jim Prior ousted as employment secretary – along with the other cabinet “wets” (Conservative MPs seen as opposed to Mrs Thatcher’s policies for being too hardline/right-wing) – and Lord Tebbit promoted in his place.

Norman Tebbit
Image:
Norman Tebbit was one of Margaret Thatcher’s staunchest political allies. Pic: PA

Years earlier, he had brandished his anti-union credentials in a debate with then employment secretary Michael Foot that culminated in him being labelled a “semi-house-trained polecat”.

Lord Tebbit said the insult “demeaned” his opponent but “gave my political career a tremendous lift”. When he was made a peer in 1992, he proudly chose a polecat as one of the symbols on his coat of arms.

‘On yer bike’

In the 1980s, Lord Tebbit was responsible for legislation that weakened the powers of the trade unions and the closed shop, making him the political embodiment of the Thatcherite ideology that was in full swing.

His tough approach was put to the test when riots erupted in Brixton, south London, against the backdrop of high rates of unemployment and mistrust between the Black community and the police.

In response to Iain Picton, the Young Conservatives’ national chairman, suggesting that rioting was a natural reaction to unemployment, Lord Tebbit famously told the Conservative Party conference: “I grew up in the ’30s with an unemployed father. He didn’t riot. He got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it.”

Lord Tebbit would forever be associated with the “on yer bike” catchphrase by enthusiasts and critics alike.

Tragedy strikes

The evident ideological harmony between Mrs Thatcher and Lord Tebbit made him her natural successor in the eyes of many, but in 1984, tragedy struck in his personal life that all but capped any leadership ambitions he harboured of his own.

Lord Tebbit was accompanying the prime minister and the rest of the Conservative cabinet to the Grand Hotel in Brighton for the party’s annual conference when it was hit by an IRA bomb, killing five people and injuring 34.

Trade and Industry Secretary Norman Tebbit was seriously injured in the explosion at the Grand Hotel in Brighton
Image:
Norman Tebbit was seriously injured in the IRA attack on Brighton’s Grand Hotel. Pic: PA


He had been asleep in his hotel room with his wife, Margaret, when the ceiling collapsed. They both fell four floors and spent hours buried in the rubble.

Lord Tebbit would spend three months in hospital and after would walk with a slight limp. His wife was never able to walk again and needed constant care.

He later spoke of how he felt unable to forgive the man responsible, Patrick Magee, or indeed the rest of the IRA and the late Martin McGuinness for their actions.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with Cabinet colleagues at a press conference in London, where she presented her party's manifesto for the forthcoming General Election.   * L-R (back row): Norman Tebbit (Employment), Sir Geoffrey Howe (Chancellor), Francis Pym (Foreign Secretary), Michael Heseltine (Defence), and Tom King (Environment). L-R (front row): William Whitelaw (Home Secretary), Thatcher, and party Chairman Cecil Parkinson.
Image:
Norman Tebbit (back left) with Margaret Thatcher at the launch of the 1983 Tory manifesto. Pic: PA

Following Mr McGuinness’s death in 2017, Lord Tebbit said, in characteristically blunt language: “He claimed to be a Roman Catholic. I hope that his beliefs turn out to be true and he’ll be parked in a particularly hot and unpleasant corner of hell for the rest of eternity.”

Shortly after the Brighton bomb, Lord Tebbit was appointed Conservative Party chair, successfully shepherding in another landslide victory in 1987.

It proved to be his last hurrah in the Commons. Later that year, he stepped down from the cabinet to care for his wife – and his relationship with Mrs Thatcher having become uneasy due to his ever-rising profile.

In 1992, two years after Mrs Thatcher was ousted by the pro-Europeans in her party, Lord Tebbit stood down as the MP for Chingford and went to the House of Lords.

Squabbles over Europe

Lord Tebbit may have left frontline politics, but he would prove to be a perennial thorn in the side of Sir John Major on the question of Europe – showing him up at the Conservative Party conference in 1992 with a barnstorming speech opposing the Maastricht Treaty, which established the EU.

His anti-EU views would continue long into the reign of David Cameron, whom he considered a “newcomer” to the traditional torch-bearing Tory party.

Lord Tebbit continued to campaign for the UK to leave the EU as patron of the cross-party Better Off Out campaign, and urged people to vote UKIP in the European elections of 2009.

It was not just issues involving Europe where Lord Tebbit’s views diverged from the modern Conservative Party. In 2000, Steve Norris, then Conservative Party vice chairman, branded him a “racist and a homophobe”.

Lord Tebbit caused controversy when he claimed a large proportion of Britain’s Asian population failed to pass the “cricket test” by continuing to support overseas teams, and for suggesting the Gay Marriage Bill of 2013 could lead to a lesbian Queen giving birth to a future monarch by artificial insemination.

Tebbit with his wife Margaret
Image:
Lord Tebbit with his wife Margaret. Pic: PA

In 2022, he retired from the House of Lords, two years after his wife died from a “particularly foul” form of dementia.

He continued to remain as engaged in politics as ever, writing prolifically in the columns of newspapers where he would reflect on his extraordinary 50-year stretch in politics.

In one memorable interview with The Independent, he said a regret that both he and Mrs Thatcher had was that they both “neglected to clone ourselves”.

A more serious – and less tongue-in-cheek – regret was expressed when Mrs Thatcher died in 2013 and tributes were made in her honour in parliament.

Lord Tebbit rose to his feet and said: “My regrets? I think I do regret that because of the commitments I had made to my own wife that I did not feel able either to continue in government after 1987 or to return to government when she later asked me to do and I left her, I fear, at the mercy of her friends. That I do regret.”

Lord Tebbit is survived by his three children, John, Alison and William.

Continue Reading

UK

Cyber attack on M&S involved ‘sophisticated impersonation’, chairman says

Published

on

By

Cyber attack on M&S involved 'sophisticated impersonation', chairman says

The chairman of Marks & Spencer has told MPs the company is “still in the rebuild mode” and will be for “some time to come” following a cyber attack which led to empty shelves and limited online operations for months.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the attack, Archie Norman declined to answer whether the business had paid a ransom.

“It’s a business decision, it’s a principal decision,” he told members of the Business and Trade Committee (BTC).

“The question you have to ask is – and I think all businesses should ask – is, when they look at the demand, what are they getting for it?

“Because once your systems are compromised and you’re going to have to rebuild anyway, maybe they’ve got exfiltrated data that you don’t want to publish. Maybe there’s something there, but in our case, substantially the damage had been done.”

Money blog: 10 happiest and unhappiest professions for shift workers

When asked again later in the BTC evidence session, Mr Norman said, “We’re not discussing any of the details of our interaction with the threat actor, including this subject, but that subject is fully shared with the NCA [National Crime Agency].”

“We don’t think it’s in the public interest to go into that subject on it, because it is a matter of law enforcement”, he added.

What happened?

The initial entry into M&S’s systems took place on 17 April through “sophisticated impersonation” that involved a third party, Mr Norman said.

It was two days later, on Easter Saturday, before the company became aware of the attack, and approximately a week after the intrusion, before the retailer heard directly from the attacker.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Who is behind M&S cyberattack?

A day later, after learning of the attack, the authorities were notified, while customers were told on Tuesday, MPs heard.

As well as British authorities, the US FBI was contacted, who are “more muscled up in this zone” and were “very supportive”, Mr Norman said.

By the time the breach is clear, systems have already been compromised, the chairman said.

The group behind the attack may have been Scattered Spider, some of whom are believed to be English-speaking teenagers, but Mr Norman said M&S made an early decision that no one from the company would deal directly with the so-called “threat actor”.

“Anybody who’s suffered an event like ours, it would be foolish to say there’s not a thousand things you’d like to have done differently,” he added.

Advice for businesses

In a warning to other businesses, M&S’s general counsel and company secretary Nick Folland said firms should be prepared to operate without IT systems.

“One of the things that we would say to others is make sure you can run your business on pen and paper,” he said.

Awareness and planning for the threats of cybersecurity meant M&S had trebled the number of people working on cybersecurity to 80and doubled its expenditure.

“We curiously doubled our insurance cover last year”, Mr Norman added.

In a good position

The business was better positioned to deal with the strike than at the start of Mr Norman’s tenure, he said.

“The context of M&S is when I joined the business, it was a very broken business… our systems were in a pretty decrepit state.”

“So I have to say if this has happened then I think we would have been kippered.”

Read more:
UK to miss deadline to agree steel and aluminium tariffs
Flavour of what’s to come as first Post Office inquiry lays bare heart-breaking legacy

Recent profits meant the company was “muscled up”.

“Extensive” insurance cover means M&S expects to make an “unsurprisingly significant claim” and receive “substantial recovery”, though the process of finding out how much will take about 18 months.

The £300m sum M&S said it expected to lose as a result of the cyber attack does not include money it expects to claim via insurance. The financial hit was calculated at £300m as the chain department store was losing £10m a week by not operating online.

The incident has “not really” affected its future, Mr Norman said.

Continue Reading

Trending