Prison Service ignores risks because of overcrowding

Cell killer was classed 'low risk'

By Martina Smit and agencies
Last Updated: 5:45pm BST 17/04/2007

A prisoner who slashed his cell-mate's throat was considered a "low risk" for cell-sharing despite a history of violence, knives and strange behaviour, an inquest heard today.

Minutes after Peter McCann was locked up with a father-of-two he had never met, he hit Shahid Aziz over the head with a chair, kicked him in the face and watched him bleed to death on the floor of their cell in Armley jail, Leeds.

It was only three weeks before Aziz was due for release after five months on remand over charges of drug dealing and criminal damage to a car.

McCann, 28, had used a makeshift knife to slit the 30-year-old's throat on April 2, 2004, an inquest at Leeds Coroner's Court heard.

But when McCann arrived at the prison a month earlier, he was assessed as "low risk both to himself and in regards to cell-sharing", Detective Inspector Scott Wood told the hearing.

Warnings by his probation officer and his previous cell-mate were ignored, and prison staff never checked up on McCann's lies. He denied any previous convictions for assault and said he did not mind sharing a cell.

In fact McCann had been convicted twice for assault, Mr Wood testified. In the one case, McCann hit an inmate over the head with a mallet after a row over which radio channel to listen to.

A third alleged assault happened at Armley just two months before McCann went on to murder his cell-mate at the very same prison, Mr Wood said. An inmate told officers that McCann had slashed him across the face with a sharpened plastic knife, but he did not take the complaint further.

After McCann's return to Armley in March, his probation officer Nadine Cooke phoned the jail to tell them he could be a risk to others, Mr Wood said. Yet such information was common and was not regarded important, the inquest heard.

Darren McGuinness, McCann's cell-mate before Aziz, then told prison staff McCann was rocking in a foetal position and talking to an imaginary person. He complained that McCann was constantly staring at him and appeared to want to get behind him, Mr Wood said.

McCann, who was awaiting trial for shoplifting computer games at an HMV store, had been transferred to Armley after staff at his bail hostel saw him hiding a sharpened dinner knife.

McCann admitted murdering Aziz and is serving a life sentence.

The inquest will look into whether the Prison Service was negligent when considering the risk of cell-sharing, West Yorkshire Coroner David Hinchliff said.

It will also investigate fears of Aziz's family that a prison officer may have been involved with the murder, and that Aziz was purposely put with someone likely to harm him.

Three weeks before his death he had been in a scuffle with a prison guard, the inquest heard.

Yesterday, Mr Aziz's widow Parveen Khan told the jury her husband was victimised by prison staff and received death threats. "He used to wear a T-shirt with a bullseye and they said one day they would hit the bullseye and he wouldn't get out of here alive."

The inquest is expected to last five weeks.