Report of the Inquiry into the circumstances of the Death of Bernard ...

K wing: 1 - 19 August
7.41 Officer Smyth’s entry in the history sheets referred explicitly to Sonny Lodge’s
history of self-harm and cautioned that he should return to E wing after the seven days
period of punishment. Despite this, on 1 August, Mr Lodge was moved not to E wing but
K wing. The inquiry has not been able to discover why. K wing operated the standard
level of regime and was the wing to which prisoners usually moved after a period on the
restricted ‘basic’ regime on H wing. However, Sonny Lodge had not been downgraded to
the basic regime. He had been located there, exceptionally, to serve a period of
punishment for a single offence.
7.42 From his letters, Sonny Lodge was not happy to be on K wing. On Sunday 2
August he wrote from there that he had been “stitched up again”.
7.43 Thursday 6 August was Sonny’s 28 th birthday.
7.44 On Friday 7 August, Mr Lodge wrote to his sister that he did not know how long
he would be on K wing but it was “doing his head in”. He was waiting for the police to
come and charge him about the Whiston incident, though he expected the charge to be
“laughed out”. He said he had been in jail six times and this was his first ‘nicking’. He
called it a “stitch-up”.
Loss of association
7.45 Entries in Sonny Lodge’s history sheets record loss of association on K wing
under the wing-based disciplinary system on 10, 16 and 18 August. From a letter, it
appears he may also have been locked up during association on 17 August.
7.46 An entry in the history sheet for Monday 10 August by Officer Hughes records
loss of association for shouting out of the window. There is an unsigned entry dated
(Wednesday) 12 August that says Mr Lodge was caught in another person’s cell without
authorisation and informed that the next entry would result in an incentives board and
transfer to H wing, to which Mr Lodge was said to have replied, “So what. It’s a piece of
cake there.” This entry appears out of sequence after an entry for Monday 17 August.
7.47 In a letter on Friday 14 August, Mr Lodge says he has been “stitched”. He does
not explain the circumstances, which he had apparently told his girlfriend about on the
phone that morning. He is unhappy still to be on K wing which he says again is “doing
his head in”.
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