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

7.48 On Sunday 16 August, an entry by Officer Brady records loss of association for
swinging lines - passing contraband between cells via the windows. Mr Lodge writes to
his girlfriend that he has been nicked again because his padmate has thrown a line so
he will not be able to phone her. He calls the wing “a stitch-up” that is doing his head in,
and any more and he’ll snap in a big way. He says he had been waiting to speak to his
girlfriend, his “head is battered” because he can’t, and that he will telephone on Monday
if he is not “stitched up again”. He says he wonders what he will be stitched up for next
and that he knew he would get stitched up “as soon as that screw gave me loads about
that nicking in Risley” and that the officer “said he knew that I was on a suspended and
he would get me on it.” He also said he thought the staff were holding back his mail
because a letter from his girlfriend seemed to have been delayed.
7.49 An entry by Officer Harold on 17 August records loss of association for Tuesday
18 August for swinging a line. On Monday 17 August, Mr Lodge wrote that he was sorry
about not being able to telephone on Sunday or Monday because he got nicked again.
He hoped to ring on Tuesday morning. He said he was sorry about getting nicked but
was being “stitched up something chronic”.
7.50 On 18 August, SO Nuttall recorded in the history sheet that he recommended a
cell move and that Mr Lodge should be placed on report if there were any further entries.
SO Nuttall told the inquiry his impression that Mr Lodge felt a small fish in a large pond
on K wing and that a move to another wing would be beneficial: He said he recalled
speaking to him and “we did sit and talk about moving him off the wing”. SO Nuttall said
that Manchester was a very old traditional jail and the whole scale of the establishment
was very different from Risley. In particular, he commented that K wing held over 200
prisoners whereas Risley prison would have held only about 400 prisoners in total so to
have as many as half that number on a single wing could be intimidating.
7.51 In a letter at the time, Sonny Lodge that he had been moved to another cell and
been in front of the Senior Officer who warned him that one more loss of association
would mean he would serve the seven added days so he was “keeping his head down”.
He said he was sorry he couldn’t ring on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday because his
padmate got him nicked again for throwing lines. He also said that he had only just
received his girlfriend’s letter written a week earlier and he believed staff were holding
his mail back.
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