Prison suicide has robbed us of any chance of justice
Family’s hope of closure dies with murder suspect
Lisa Boyle
A murder suspect who took his own life in jail has robbed his alleged victim’s family of the chance to look him in the eye in court, relatives said last night.
The devastated sister of Jenniferennifer Morgan, who was found stabbed to death in her garden, said her family have been left “numb” by a ruling which found the suicide of Hugh Baird, 40, could not have been prevented.
He was due to go on trial accusedd of murdering the 33- year- oldd mum at her home in Kirkintilloch,h, near Glasgow, in April 2018.
But on October 8 that year he took his own life at Barlinnie prison – a week before his trial was about to start.
At a fatal accident inquiry into Baird’s death last week, procurator fiscal Richard Hill submitted that it was unavoidable.
Jennifer’s sister, Laura Evans, described her torment over being unable to face the alleged killer in court and find answers over her beloved sibling’s death.
Laura, of Kirkintilloch, said: “I’m not glad he’s dead and I’m not sad he’s dead – I just feel numb about it and it’s been a huge shock.
“I still have so many questions about Jennifer’s death that it’s driving me nuts. I keep going over it in my head.
“My mum was living in hope that there was a note he’d left to explain why he’d done this to Jennifer, or that he was sorry, but we haven’t even had a phone call to give us any information on the FAI.
“I wanted to be able to look him in the eye at court but I’ve been robbed of that.”
Baird allegedly stabbed mum Jennifer 27 times. He body was later found in the garden of their home by her 11-year-old daughter.
Heartbroken Laura, 37, said police have
beebeen unable to trace the momobile phone Jennifer useduse to call 999 after being stabbestabbed, something which the family aredesparedesperate to locate.
At the time of her death, Laura revealed her torment at convincing her sister to move to Kirkintilloch from Maryhill because she felt it was a “safe place”.
She added: “Shug (Baird) killed himself two days before he was due in court, which was on my birthday.
“I was scared about going to court but I psyched myself up for it because we all wanted closure – but he killed himself. I think he did it through the guilt of what he had done. I’ll never forgive him for that.”
At the FAI, Hill stated: “There was no reasonable precaution that might have prevented it. There was no defect in any system of working which contributed to the death.”
The inquiry heard that Baird had self- harmed on his 40th birthday in August 2018 and had a puncture wound to his neck. Hill told the court: “The explanation given was he had taken an illicit substance.”
It was revealed Baird was taken off the prison’s Talk To Me strategy, which deals with preventing suicide, six weeks before his death after medics and prison staff agreed he was no longer a suicide risk.