Rapist chained on hospital trip

LAG, 77, POSED RISK

A WHEELCHAIR-BOUND paedophile posed such a risk to the public he had to be kept on a chain just to visit hospital.

Three guards were needed to keep the public safe from frail 77-year-old Thomas Spence.

The rapist was serving a 16-year sentence for abuse spanning four decades. But after battling ill health – including gangrene which cost him a toe – he died of organ failure before he could once again taste freedom.

Spence, jailed at Newcastle Crown Court in 2011, was initially locked up in Durham before being moved to HMP Wakefield.

Britain’s largest high-security prison, HMP Wakefield has housed killers, rapists – and even Darlington cannibal David Harker.

Yet, despite his age, Spence’s “behaviour posed some challenges” to staff in the tough 750-capacity jail.

As such, bosses still classed Spence as a “high risk” to the public. So when his health deteriorated , three staff transported him to outpatient appointments on an escort chain.

An escort chain is a long chain with a handcuff at each end, one of which is attached to a prison officer.

But a watchdog has questioned the move.

“We query whether the use of restraints was appropriate given Mr Spence was a 77-year-old man who used a wheelchair and was showing signs of deterioration, and we question why restraints were considered necessary and proportionate over and above the control already available through the escorting officers,” states an Prison and Probation Ombudsman report.

The restraints were removed during treatment, the report states, as well as when Spence was admitted before his death on February 1.

The report reveals the pervert – who had a history of ailments – had been in and out of hospital in the months before for scans and tests.

In October 2017, he had a suspected stroke, while the next day he injured his head following a fall in a cell.

That was linked to a change in his behaviour in which he became confused.

However, he had another fall that December, breaking his hip, and his health eventually worsened to the point a “do not resuscitate” instruction had been put in place for him.

“Despite his desire at times to return to a residential wing, after his condition deteriorated Mr Spence remained in the inpatient unit as the most appropriate place for care to be delivered,” adds the report.

“When his condition deteriorated further, his admission to the prison’s palliative care suite was arranged.”

Spence was jailed after one of his young victims broke her silence in a heartbreaking letter to her mum.