Former prison officer handed suspended sentence

Graham Evans (pictured on the left) created false reports in the prison log to cover his mistakes

A former prison officer has received a suspended sentence for misconduct following the death of a prisoner.

Graham Evans, 67, was sentenced at Worcester Crown Court on Monday to nine months in prison, suspended for 12 months, and 80 hours' unpaid work.

It comes after prisoner Mesut Olgun, a known suicide risk, was found dead in his cell less than 15 hours after arriving at Hewell Prison near Redditch.

Judge Pepperall said there were “significant systemic failings of the prison” at the time of the prisoner's death but that Evans was not responsible for them.

The officer should have checked on the 30-year-old every 15 minutes - 33 times during his shift - but he looked in the cell just 10 times.

Some of the checks made by Evans were just three seconds long with an 80-minute-gap left between two of the cell checks.

He later created false reports in the prison log to cover his mistakes - claiming he had made extra checks when he had not.

The judge said that, provided Evans committed no more offences, “that would be the end of the matter”.

Discovered by cleaner

Mr Olgun had been arrested hours before his death, after he was seen smashing windows in Bromyard High Street in the early hours.

His body was then discovered by a cleaner at the prison, in Tardebigge, at 06:33 BST on 6 June, 2018.

Rosemary Ainslie, head of the Crown Prosecution Service Special Crime Division, said: "In his role as a prison support worker it was Evans’ responsibility to carry out all the required welfare checks on Mr Olgun, a vulnerable prisoner in his care.

"He both failed to carry out the number of required checks and fabricated the records."