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

visit before time and that there was a bit of verbal abuse between them from the visit and
back to the wing. The cell was unlocked for Mr Lodge to collect tea at about 6 pm and
the officer told him he was on “bang-up” (loss of association), to which Mr Lodge said he
was not surprised. Mr Gray said the officer called to another officer about speaking to Mr
Lodge about it later.
9.14 Mr Gray said that when the cell was unlocked for association, he was told that he
must go out of the cell and could not stay with Mr Lodge. SO Nuttall said that if Mr Gray
had wanted to give up association and stay with Mr Lodge he could do so. Mr Bowcock
said in his police statement in September 1998 that it would be unusual for a prisoner to
ask to stay in his cell in these circumstances but 90% of the time they would be told no.
However, in oral evidence to the inquiry Mr Bowcock said that a prisoner would be within
his rights to stay in his cell during association.
How cells were selected for searching
9.15 The inquiry asked how cells were selected for searching. Witnesses said that
routine searching was conducted by wing officers and that all cells were searched at
least once in a specified cycle. Witnesses’ recollections varied as to whether at the time
the cycle was one month or two. A record was kept on the wing so that searching
officers could see which cells still required searching to comply with the standard. At the
end of the cycle the record was passed to the security department.
9.16 SO Nuttall told the inquiry that officers detailed for searching exercised discretion
about which cells to search. He said there was a degree of trust. Staff would have regard
to meeting the minimum requirement, but would not search only cells that had not
already been searched in the cycle. To confine searching in that way would be to
undermine its purpose, if prisoners could count on their cells not being searched more
than once in a cycle. Governor McColm said the pattern must always be random. In
addition to routine searching by wing officers, targeted searches were undertaken by the
prison’s dedicated search team where security information gave rise to particular
suspicion.
G wing search records
9.17 The records for the searching cycle showed that on 27 August all the cells on G
wing had been searched at least once in July or August. Sonny Lodge’s cell, G3.24, had
been searched on 12 August 1998. An ‘excess searching sheet’ recorded cells that were
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