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

9.5 Officer Downs told the inquiry that he was the last officer to leave visits. He had
to make sure all the prisoners were out and escorted back to their wings. He needed to
keep a large group of prisoners in sight and together. Mr Lodge and another man were
lagging behind the main body of prisoners and talking. He told them to move on and
says that Mr Lodge swore at him, first directly, then muttering, abusively. Mr Downs told
the inquiry that Mr Lodge was aggressive in tone and manner and that he spoke with
venom.
Loss of association
9.6 Officer Downs says that, back at G wing at about 5 pm, he challenged Mr Lodge
about the incident and he denied all knowledge of it. Officer Downs instructed that he
would lose association for the evening. Under the wing-based disciplinary system
operating at the prison at the time, prison officers were able to impose certain sanctions,
including loss of association, for minor infringements of the rules, provided they were
approved by a senior officer. The scheme had been criticised by the Prisons
Inspectorate – see Chapter 7 above. Officer Downs told the inquiry that the senior officer
(SO) for the afternoon shift was present when he challenged Mr Lodge so it was not
necessary expressly to seek approval. He said that if the SO thought it inappropriate he
or she would have said so.
9.7 Officer Downs said he did not recall who the senior officer on duty was. A note
from the Central Resource Unit dated 9 September 1998 says that SO Frazer was on
duty on G wing from 07:00 to 13:00 and SO Nuttall was the SO on the wing from 13:00
to 21:00. However, that appears to be incorrect. SO Nuttall told the Coroner’s officer that
he came on duty at 17:30 and was in charge of the wing for the evening shift. In his
evidence to the inquiry, SO Nuttall said that he was not aware of the incident on the way
back from visits as he took over responsibility for G wing at about 18:00 hours. He
assumed that the SO responsible for the wing during the core day of 9 to 5 would have
dealt with it.
The records
9.8 The system required sanctions to be recorded in a loss of facilities record signed
by the authorising SO and in the prisoner’s history sheets. There was no entry in the loss
of facilities record. Officer Downs told the inquiry this was an oversight, possibly because
of the incident that occurred later. He said he would have completed the paperwork in
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