Inquest hears killer’s probation worker was ‘overwhelmed’
THE inquest into the death of murdered teenager Conner Marshall has heard that a probation worker looking after his killer’s case was “hardworking” but faced a challenging workload.
The 18-year-old, from Barry, was murdered by David Braddon after being brutally beaten at Trecco Bay caravan park in Porthcawl in March 2015.
Mr Marshall later died in hospital after suffering catastrophic injuries including brain swelling.
An inquest hearing at Pontypridd Coroners’ Court previously heard that Braddon, of Caerphilly, was on probation at the time he carried out the attack for drug offences and assaulting a police officer and had previous convictions for domestic abuse.
Kathryn Oakley, who managed Braddon’s case, told the court she felt “overwhelmed” in work and had fallen behind with her caseload.
During this period, the Wales Probation Trust split into the public-run National Probation Service and private-run Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC), which employed Ms Oakley.
Speaking at the hearing last Friday, Ms Oakley’s former line manager Sinead Lewis said that while she didn’t believe there had been an increase in workload, there was a significant change in the way probation service employees worked.
When asked about how Ms Oakley was coping, Ms Lewis said Ms Oakley was feeling overwhelmed and she had a number of outstanding cases which needed completing.
She added: “I felt she had a high caseload for a new probation service officer.”
The court also heard one member of staff on the team was on maternity leave and others were on sick leave.
Ms Lewis said: “Kathryn was expected to cover that leave. All staff were expected to cover sickness and leave, not just Kathryn.”
The court heard that many workers in the Caerphilly office, where Ms Oakley worked, were behind on their assessments.
In order to combat the backlog, Ms Lewis said she held fortnightly supervision meetings with Ms Oakley and went through all of her cases with her to check on their status.
Coroner Nadim Bashir asked why Braddon’s case came up during Ms Lewis’ supervision of Ms Oakley.
The witness said: “I decided to discuss every case with Kathryn so we looked at the case, where they were in terms of sentence, what assessments had been completed, if there was any work or actions that needed to be taken.”
The coroner said: “Was he causing any difficulty or causing any concern?”
Ms Lewis said: “No, she reported he was complying and Kathryn had made some referrals so he was due to undergo appointments.
“A sentencing plan was completed and we discussed previous domestic abuse issues.
“I was confident that David Braddon’s case was appropriate for a probation service worker to handle.”
The court also heard there was a staff shortage in the community office due to maternity leave and sickness leave, which meant that more cases were allocated to Ms Oakley, who was already struggling.
Mr Bashir said Ms Lewis described Ms Oakley as a “hard working member of staff” with a “challenging” caseload.
He asked: “Was she an uncomplaining individual?”
Ms Lewis said: “She was very good at seeking manager’s support. In some cases I felt she should have been able to make changes on her own.
“A lot of the work I carried out with her was on her confidence in making decisions.”
Earlier, the inquest heard from Ms Oakley’s line manager at CRC, Lucy Jones, who denied there was a lack of staff in her team and said Ms Oakley’s workload was “appropriate”.
When asked by coroner Nadim Bashir what Ms Jones’ assessment of Ms Oakley was, she said: “Kathryn was and still is extremely thorough, she represented she’s quite meticulous in detail and that’s a reflection of her work, she was very organised.
“She was at a place in her practice where she quite rightly needed a lot of support including affirmation and confidencebuilding in her decisionmaking. She needed confidence, not correcting.”
Mr Bashir asked: “So was her caseload appropriate?”
Ms Jones said: “For a full-time PSO, there would be an expectation of caseload of around 60 being appropriate.”
Debbie Roach, a substance misuse practitioner with the Crime Reduction Initiative (CRI) had sessions with Braddon.
She told the inquest Braddon never appeared to be under the influence in their sessions. She recalled one occasion he was “drowsy” but said that was due to prescription medication.
She also recalled that
Braddon told her: “I don’t want any other involvement in the criminal justice system”.
She added: “He never appeared to behave in any way contrary to what he was telling me.”
The inquest heard Ms Roach had 13 sessions with him, including two held on the same day.
She said Braddon was not reporting any binge drinking during their sessions but said he did drink on one occasion “following an argument with his mother”.
In March 2015, Terry Reddington was deputy local unit head of Wales CRC based in the Newport office and looked after the Gwent area.
Kristen Heaven, representing the family of Mr Marshall, asked him about the issues surrounding workload and the anticipated changes ahead of CRC coming into effect on June 1, 2014.
Ms Heaven said: “People could not cope with their workload.”
Mr Reddington said: “That was not the reality for everyone, people had different experiences.”
The inquest heard that meetings were held ahead of June 1 where it was “anticipated” that workload could increase after the move to CRC.
Ms Heaven put to Mr Reddington that a number of people at the Caerphilly office were “behind” with their caseload.
He replied: “It was a particular issue for some people in Caerphilly but not all people.”
He said that between June 1 to the end of November the backlog of cases was dealt with across Gwent.
The inquest continues.