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Sixth Report Session 1998-99
Volume 2
OCTOBER 1998 - MARCH 1999
The full report of selected cases
Summary of other investigations completed
HOME OFFICE
Misleading information by the Prison Service (PS) concerning a death in custody
The Ombudsman found fully justified a complaint by Mr and Mrs C that PS had misled them as to some of the circumstances which had led to the death in custody of their son. The misinformation which PS had first given them concerning how their son had come to be placed together in the same cell with another man appeared to have derived originally from a genuine and understandable misinterpretation of the prison Governor's short initial report to PS Headquarters. However, PS had subsequently allowed that misinterpretation to go uncorrected to a considerable extent, despite the fact that their internal enquiry report had clearly indicated that a different explanation was in order. The effect had been to maintain a false impression concerning the possible extent of PS's culpability regarding the death, well beyond the point at which the existence of that impression could legitimately be ascribed to an incomplete understanding of events. The Director General of PS undertook to apologise to Mr and Mrs C and to release to them PS's internal enquiry report.
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