Manchester Evening News

Prisoner hid for 8 hours - but wasn’t even missed

SENIOR JAILER SUSPENDED AFTER INMATE CONCEALED HIMSELF IN LAUNDRY ROOM DURING TWO ROLL CALLS

- By NEAL KEELING

A SENIOR prison officer has been suspended after an inmate hid in a laundry room for almost eight hours – and wasn’t missed.

The prisoner had been moved from segregatio­n to an induction area while space was found for him to return to a regular wing at Forest Bank prison, in Agecroft, Salford, which is run by Sodexo Justice Services. But he then went and hid in a laundry room. He finally handed himself in the early hours of the morning.

He had managed to go missing despite the prison’s head-count system, going unnoticed for two separate checks. A source told the M.E.N: “A senior prison custody officer was suspended.

“The prisoner was moved from segregatio­n to the induction wing. He was allowed out of his cell to have a shower but not locked back up. There was a roll call of prisoners at 8pm and no one missed him, then another at 10pm.

“Eventually, he presented himself to a female officer who was working the wing alone at 3.30am - he had been missing for nearly eight hours.”

A spokespers­on for the prison said: ‘“A member of staff has been suspended pending an investigat­ion. Staffing levels were appropriat­e when the incident happened. We can’t comment further while the investigat­ion is ongoing.”

The prison has been hit by a spate of incidents this year.

The M.E.N reported in March how a female prison officer resigned after being accused of having relationsh­ip with a sex offender inmate.

In another incident, two inmates managed to overpower an officer, steal his keys and flee from their cell in an escape bid.

An officer was allegedly attacked after he opened a cell at the category B prison during ‘lock down’ to give the inmates toilet roll on Easter Saturday. And, last month, a prison officer was arrested after mobile phones and batteries were found at the prison.

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