Warder in clear over suicide
A WARDER accused of threatening to “terrorise” a teenage inmate was not responsible for the prisoner’s suicide, a fatal accident inquiry heard yesterday.
Raygen Merchant, 17, hanged himself from a light fitting at Polmont Young Offenders’ Institution, Stirlingshire, in October 2014.
Warder William Main, 47, claimed his colleague Patrice Napoli had “stated his dislike for the young man”.
Main said Napoli indicated he was going to go into his cell with another officer, Gregor Young, to “terrorise” Merchant.
The warder claimed it happened three to four days before Merchant, from Aberdeen, killed himself.
But in a report, Scottish Prison Service investigator Chris Thomson said: “It is the conclusion of the investigating manager that there are issues with the reliability of Officer Main’s account and that there is no evidence available to support the allegations made by Officer Main that Officers Napoli and Young conducted an inappropriate in-cell discussion with Raygen Merchant.”
Thomson said Merchant had “made a number of comments” in the days before his death that suggested he may have had suicidal thoughts but he made no complaints about his treatment by staff.
At the hearing, Main, who has been dismissed by the SPA, was accused by their lawyer, solicitor advocate Dominic Scullion, of “concocting” his claims.
The inquiry continues.