Woman who thought she was poisoned with tapeworm eggs describes ‘rife’ self-harm in prison
When Bryony was held in prison, she says self-harm was “rife”.
The then 27-year-old – who had no criminal record – was arrested when she was having delusions she was being poisoned.
After her mother’s death from pancreatic cancer, Bryony (not her real name) started to develop mental health problems while she was a university student.
They culminated in a psychosis where she believed there was a tapeworm in her brain which was killing her. Bryony thought a local takeaway worker had poisoned her food with tapeworm eggs.
In the midst of her psychosis in 2017, she threatened to kill the man if he didn’t admit to drugging her and put a match through the door of the takeaway.
Bryony was arrested for malicious communication and attempted arson and placed on remand in the mental-health wing of HMP Styal in Cheshire.
Warning: This story contains references to self-harm
Once in prison, Bryony said she was “so depressed” that she self-harmed for the first-time.
Bryony suffered mental health problems at the time she was held in prison
“I couldn’t see any other option,” she said.
“It was basically a way to cope with my surroundings.
“When you’re psychotic and depressed, being locked away in a cell is one of the worst things you can do to someone.”
Prisoner ‘tried to disembowel himself’
The extent to which mentally unwell prisoners are going to hurt themselves has been revealed in a new report seen exclusively by Sky News.
And there are concerns the problem is being worsened by people with mental health problems being held in prisons for too long before they are transferred to psychiatric hospitals.
The report, from chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor, says some mentally unwell prisoners are “so driven to harming themselves they have… removed teeth or maimed themselves to the point of exposing their own intestines, frequently causing life-changing injuries”.
Mr Taylor told Sky News: “We came across a case where a prisoner was, in effect, attempting to disembowel himself.”
Despite these shocking examples, some prisoners are waiting more than a year to be transferred to psychiatric hospitals.
The chief inspector of prisons’ report says inmates are suffering life-changing injuries from self-harm. File pic: PA
NHS guidance says the time between the identification of the need for hospital admission and the transfer to hospital should take no more than 28 days. For those with an urgent need, the transfer should take place faster.
Mr Taylor said this is not happening in 85% of cases – and the average wait time is almost three months.
Prison officers receive limited training in mental health and risk being injured in their interactions with unwell prisoners.
Therefore, many unwell prisoners who are dangerous or difficult to manage end up in solitary confinement for long periods, worsening their condition.
Latest figures show there was a 17% increase in the rate of self-harm incidents among prisoners in England and Wales in the year to June 2023 – with a record level for female inmates.
The Ministry of Justice said there were “notable differences in self-harm trends by gender” – as the rate in female prisons increased “considerably by 63% to a new peak (6,213 incidents per 1,000 prisoners)”, compared to a rise of 3% in male prisons (555 incidents per 1,000 prisoners).
‘She was suffering, really suffering’
Sarah Reed had schizophrenia and was sent to HMP Holloway in 2015.
She was sent to the prison for psychiatric reports to be obtained to confirm whether she was fit to stand trial for an alleged assault, which occurred while she was sectioned as a patient at a psychiatric hospital.
Sarah Reed died after ‘unacceptable delays in psychiatric assessment’
In prison, Sarah was taken off her antipsychotic medication and placed in segregation, where her health rapidly declined.
Sarah’s mother Marilyn Reed told Sky News: “She kept saying ‘mum, I need my meds, I can’t sleep’. She also had these two black eyes. She was suffering, really suffering.
“The last thing she said to me was ‘get me out of here’.”
On 11 January 2016, Sarah was found unresponsive in her cell.
An inquest jury concluded unacceptable delays in psychiatric assessment and failures in care contributed to her death.
A court heard how she spent her final days in a filthy cell, kept in virtual isolation with no visits or telephone calls to family.
The prison closed in July 2016.
Marilyn Reed spoke to Sky News about the death of her daughter Sarah
According to the chief inspector for prisons, there are two reasons for the long delays in transferring acutely mentally unwell prisoners to mental health facilities: bureaucracy and the lack of beds in psychiatric facilities.
Latest NHS figures show 90.5% of overnight beds reserved for mental illness are occupied.
Read more:
Ex-prisoner gives shocking account of life in a women’s jail
Huge cost of keeping inmates on indefinite sentences revealed
While there are long delays in transferring prisoners to hospital, Mr Taylor says he has concerns about the way prisons are used “as an alternative to a hospital bed”.
Prisons continue to be used “as a place of safety”, which means people can be remanded in custody during a mental health crisis solely because there are no available hospital places.
Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor
Mr Taylor described hearing about a woman who had deliberately jumped in front of traffic four times in the hope that it would end her life. The woman was arrested for a public order offence and remanded in prison.
The draft of the Mental Health Bill sought to remove the use of prison as a place of safety and to reform the Bail Act to prevent courts from remanding defendants for their own protection, solely for mental health reasons.
The bill also proposed a statutory time limit of 28 days to complete transfers from prisons to hospital.
However, the bill was not included in the King’s Speech in November 2023, meaning that there will be no legislative reform of the Mental Health Act.
Sky’s Alice Porter spoke to Bryony
Prison ‘made illness 10 times worse’
Bryony spent six months in prison before appearing in court where she was given a hospital order and transferred to a mental health facility.
There she was given a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and began treatment.
“I started to get better straight away,” she said.
“I don’t know if getting arrested and getting sent to prison was the right response.
“I think perhaps it might have been more beneficial if I’d have been taken straight to hospital instead of prison.
“I’ve never seen people so ill before. And prison just made that illness 10 times worse.”
A government spokesperson said: “Offenders are entitled to access mental health support in prison, where they are also helped to get off drugs and into rehabilitation.
“NHS England is investing in post-custody care to help prison leavers access their community-based health services – helping to reduce reoffending, cut crime and protect the public.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
UK
Abuse ‘ignored’ at Medomsley Detention Centre where UK’s ‘most prolific’ sex offender attacked young men, report finds
Decades of abuse of thousands of young men by staff at a detention centre in County Durham was “ignored and dismissed” by the prison service, the police and the Home Office, an investigation has found.
Warning: Readers may find the content below distressing
The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) has issued a report into how “horrific” physical and sexual violence was allowed to continue against 17 to 21-year-olds at the Medomsley Detention Centre in Consett.
It named officer Neville Husband who was thought to have groomed and attacked hundreds of trainees in Medomsley’s kitchens. He was described by the ombudsman “as possibly the most prolific sex offender in British history”.
Neville Husband in December 1983. File pic: NCJ Archive/Mirrorpix/Getty
The abuse at Medomsley continued “unchallenged” for the entire 26 years of its operation, from 1961 to 1987, according to the report from ombudsman Adrian Usher. There was, he said, “extreme violence and acts of a sadistic nature”.
The centre held inmates who were all first-time offenders and who had been convicted of crimes ranging from shoplifting and non-payment of fines to robbery.
A sign for the centre in July 1998. Pic: Elliot Michael/Mirrorpix/Getty
Several members of staff were convicted after investigations by Durham Constabulary in 2001 and 2023 found widespread abuse of more than 2,000 detainees at Medomsley.
But the ombudsman investigated what authorities knew about the abuse, whether there were opportunities to have intervened at the time and what was done about any opportunities.
Husband ‘used power with devastating effect’
Husband was finally convicted of sexual assault and was jailed in 2003 and again in 2005. He died in 2010.
Mr Usher said: “The illegitimate power imbalance that existed between Husband and the trainees and other staff further flourished within a culture of collusion and silence from other employees.
“Husband used this power with devastating effect.”
Then home secretary Leon Brittan visiting in 1985. Pic: Geoff Hewitt/Mirrorpix/Getty
Trainees ‘physically abused’
Trainees were physically abused from the moment they arrived, when they bathed, were strip searched, during physical education, while working and even during medical examinations, the PPO found.
Victims were targeted for being perceived as gay or weak. Inmates who failed to address staff as “sir” would be punched.
Witnesses said baths were either scalding hot or freezing cold. A number of them said if they were ill, painkillers could be taped to their forehead and they would be told to run around until the pill had dissolved.
Ombudsman Adrian Usher (left) and senior investigator Richard Tucker
Medomsley leaders at every level ‘failed’
Mr Usher said: “Leaders at every level at Medomsley, including the warden, failed in their duty to protect the best interests of those under their charge. Either staff in leadership roles were aware of the abuse, in which case they were complicit, or they lacked dedication and professional curiosity to such an extent as to not be professionally competent.”
“The knowledge of abuse by the Prison Service, the police, the Home Office and other organisations of authority was ignored and dismissed. The authorities failed in their duty to keep detainees safe,” Mr Usher added.
The report highlights a complaint, written in 1965, of an officer striking an inmate with “a distinct blow”. The handwritten response below dismisses it as “playfulness”.
Staff ‘took law into own hands’
A letter sent to all detention centre wardens in 1967 refers to the “increasing number of complaints of assault” and warns of staff “taking the law into their own hands” with discipline going “beyond the legitimate”.
The police officers who delivered 17-year-old Eric Sampson to Medomsley in December 1977 told him he was going to “get the hell kicked out” of him there, he said.
Eric Sampson called the centre ‘hell on earth’
Victim – ‘I could have been killed’
“The violence I had done to me was terrible. I could have been killed in there,” said Mr Sampson. “Every day and night was hell on earth for the full nine weeks.
“With all the abuse, and obviously the sexual abuse, it totally ruined my life. It should never have happened in the first place, or it should have been stopped.”
The inquiry spoke to 79 victims and witnesses.
Over 2,000 former inmates came forward to give their testimony to Operation Seabrook, a police investigation that led to five retired officers being convicted of abuse in 2019.
Lawyer David Greenwood, who represents victims of the abuse at Medomsley, said he has been contacted by men who were held at 20 other detention centres around the country, alleging similar violence.
“I think it was a systematic thing. These prison officers were cogs in a big machine which was designed, culturally or by training, to treat boys really badly,” he said.
Lawyer David Greenwood suggested abuse may have been widespread
Mr Greenwood is calling for a wider inquiry into abuse at all of the detention centres.
What have the police said?
The ombudsman’s report found police officers from both Durham and Cleveland police were “aware that physical and sexual abuse was taking place at Medomsley from as early as 1965 due to complaints of abuse made at police stations”.
It said officers who ignored, dismissed or took no action “failed in their duty to report and investigate crime”.
In response to the report, Durham Constabulary has publicly apologised for “the force’s historic failure to investigate decades of horrifying abuse”.
Chief Constable Rachel Bacon said: “This report makes for extremely difficult reading. It exposes shameful failings by police at that time: both to recognise that the physical violence meted out by staff at Medomsley amounted to abuse or to adequately investigate allegations by those victims who did have the bravery to come forward and report what happened to them.
“I am satisfied that policing standards at Durham Constabulary are worlds apart from those which sadly appear to have existed at that time.”
Cleveland Police said in a statement: “All victims of any form of abuse or exploitation should always be listened to and action taken to prevent any further forms of abuse, and we acknowledge this was not the case many decades ago.
“We know cases like this have a lasting impact upon victims and Cleveland Police has, and continues to, improve its service and support to all those affected by abuse, especially those in cases of children and young people.”
The ombudsman’s report pointed out that the victims have never received a public apology and the complaints process for children in custody remains the same today as it was at the time of the abuse.
Mr Usher said: “I leave it to all of the bodies in this investigation to examine their organisational consciences and determine if there is any action taken today, despite such an extended passage of time, that would diminish, even fractionally, the trauma that is still being felt by victims to this day.”
Thousands of job cuts at the NHS will go ahead after the £1bn needed to fund the redundancies was approved by the Treasury.
The government had already announced its intention to slash the headcount across both NHS England and the Department of Health by around 18,000 administrative staff and managers, including on local health boards.
The move is designed to remove “unnecessary bureaucracy” and raise £1bn a year by the end of the parliament to improve services for patients by freeing up more cash for operations.
NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Treasury had been in talks over how to pay for the £1bn one-off bill for redundancies.
It is understood the Treasury has not granted additional funding for the departures over and above the NHS’s current cash settlement, but the NHS will be permitted to overspend its budget this year to pay for redundancies, recouping the costs further down the line.
‘Every penny will be spent wisely’
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to make further announcements regarding the health service in the budget on 26 November.
And addressing the NHS providers’ annual conference in Manchester today, Mr Streeting is expected to say the government will be “protecting investment in the NHS”.
He will add: “I want to reassure taxpayers that every penny they are being asked to pay will be spent wisely.
“Our investment to offer more services at evenings and weekends, arm staff with modern technology, and improving staff retention is working.
“At the same time, cuts to wasteful spending on things like recruitment agencies saw productivity grow by 2.4% in the most recent figures – we are getting better bang for our buck.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting during a visit to the NHS National Operations Centre in London earlier this year. Pic: PA
Mr Streeting’s speech is due to be given just hours after he became entrenched in rumours of a possible coup attempt against Sir Keir Starmer, whose poll ratings have plummeted ahead of what’s set to be a tough budget.
Mr Streeting’s spokesperson was forced to deny he was doing anything other than concentrating on the health service.
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He is also expected on Wednesday to give NHS leaders the go-ahead for a 50% cut to headcounts in Integrated Care Boards, which plan health services for specific regions.
They have been tasked with transforming the NHS into a neighbourhood health service – as set down in the government’s long-term plans for the NHS.
Those include abolishing NHS England, which will be brought back into the health department within two years.
Watch Wes Streeting on Mornings With Ridge And Frost from 7am on Sky News.
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