Criticism of prison bosses as guards cleared of assault
TWO prison officers accused of injuring prisoners by hitting them with their shields have been found not guilty of assault.
David Potts and Nathan White, who worked at HMP Parc, Bridgend, at the time of the alleged assaults, were acquitted by a jury at Cardiff Crown Court on Monday after a twoweek long trial.
Potts, 25, of Coity, Bridgend, was charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent to do so and an alternative count of inflicting grievous bodily harm on inmate Michael Hastie-Davies during a yard clearance on August 7 last year.
Mr Hastie-Davies suffered a fractured skull and bleeding to the brain during an incident at the prison’s Phoenix Unit, which is a segregation unit, after he and two other inmates refused to come in from the exercise yard.
Potts and his co-defendant White, 28, of Mill View Estate, Maesteg, were members of a team of nine prison officers in protective clothing who went onto the yard to take them back to their cells.
White was accused of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and an alternative charge of common assault in relation to cuts and bruises suffered by a second inmate, Ryan Madden.
White told police he struck Mr Madden to try to get him to open his hands in case he had a concealed weapon, the court heard during the trial, which took place at Newport Crown Court before being moved to Cardiff for jury deliberations.
Jurors were told about a failure of management leading up to and during the yard clearance that increased the risk of injury for all involved.
HMP Parc prison officer James Bibby watched CCTV of the incident and wrote a report on it.
Darren Preston, defending Potts, said there was always a risk of injury to prisoners or prison officers in an operation like this, whether by action or accident, and Mr Bibby agreed.
Mr Preston said to him: “I think your concern was that the failures that we have identified of management, whilst we can’t say they caused anyone injury, they increased the risk.”
Mr Bibby said: “Yes, they increased the risk for all involved.”
He said the briefing before a control and restraint (C&R) operation was important and the one on that day did not include enough information.
Mr Preston said: “Would you agree that what you found (in your review) was that there was a catastrophic lack of management?”
Mr Bibby replied: “Like I have pointed out, procedures were not followed and that is correct.”
The court heard procedures not followed included a command centre not being set up and negotiators not being brought in to try to resolve the situation with the inmates in the yard. Mr Bibby also said no written plan was compiled, no commanders were appointed to take charge of the action, only one of the required three nurses was present and two of the nine officers did not have the proper training.
He also criticised the fact that the control and restraint on Mr HastieDavies was allowed to continue after his injury was noticed.
Jurors also heard about staff and equipment shortages in the prison at the time of the yard clearance.
Potts said there should have been four officers on duty on the unit on August 7 but there were only three and when he reported it he was told “that we were short (staffed) throughout the prison” and to “manage as best we could”.