Baby Abuser Pedophile Commits Suicide in UK Prison

Convicted paedophile Jared Perry, 32, died in custody at HMP Parc Prison in Bridgend, Wales. In 2019, the UK prison system faced a disturbing incident when Perry, serving a 17-year extended sentence, had pleaded guilty to a string of sexual and indecent assaults on children, some less than six months old.

The circumstances surrounding Perry’s death led to an inquest at the Pontypridd Coroners’ Court, which brought to light what had occurred in the lead-up to his death. After a ten-day inquest, the jury concluded that Perry died from “misadventure.” This verdict was given after thorough deliberation through the evidence presented, including details on the prison officers’ actions and timing.

Another one of the significant findings from the inquest was the identification of failures within the prison system. The jury pointed out that there had been “a failure of prison staff to observe Jared Perry while he was in custody in HMP Parc Prison in Bridgend”. There was also a delay in response to Perry’s situation, which might have had a bearing on the tragic outcome.

The case of Jared Perry throws light on the very complicated challenges facing the prison system on how to manage high-risk offenders. Indeed, noted by the inquest, Perry had been classified as an “extremely high risk” inmate. Normally, this would imply that the prison staff accorded such prisoners special attention and care to secure both the inmate and others’ safety.

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman is an independent body that investigated Perry’s death and the circumstances leading up to it. Their purpose is to “make a significant contribution to safer, fairer custody and community supervision.” Their findings most likely helped to clarify the circumstances that led to Perry’s death; this will likely affect future prison policies and procedures.

The incident led to an Action Plan by HMP Parc Prison to address the concerns raised. This covered an enhancement of the ACCT process ensuring that multidisciplinary team approach is operational with adequate resourcing and training for all healthcare staff; a weekly meeting of the Head of Safety with case managers in order to provide assurance of confidence in the process.

It should be noted that suicide and self-harm are major concerns in prisons. A systematic review published in The Lancet Psychiatry found that “the strongest associations with self-harm in prison were found for suicide-related antecedents, including current or recent suicidal ideation”. This means that such prisoners must be closely observed and given special care.

The case of Jared Perry is yet another grim reminder of the conundrums involved in trying to manage effectively a prison population, particularly one convicted of serious offenses. That evidences continuing requirements for improved observation, shorter response times, and support systems needed within the UK prison system to ensure these tragedies will never happen again in the future.