South London prisoner died after swallowing drugs package smuggled in by his girlfriend

A man died in a South London prison after swallowing a package of drugs smuggled in by his girlfriend, a recent report from the Prisons and Probations Ombudsman has found. Stephen Weatherley was transferred to HMP Thameside in Thamesmead, Greenwich in 2017 after being moved from HMP High Down, having been charged with murder.

An initial health screen at HMP Belmarsh noted that the prisoner had been a regular heroin and crack cocaine user and was prescribed methadone as a substitute. He also reportedly suffered from epilepsy and depression.

The report said Mr Weatherley’s girlfriend and sister visited him in HMP Thameside on February 23 2018. During the visit, Mr Weatherley reportedly moved his hand to his girlfriend’s pocket while giving her a hug, before putting his hand to his mouth.

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The prisoner was immediately grabbed by prison staff before being strip searched by officers. Mr Weatherley denied having anything unauthorised and nothing was found during the search. After his death, the Ombudsman investigator listened to phone calls the prisoner had made, and it was found he had called his girlfriend a number of times that day following the visit.

The report said: “At 6.26pm, Mr Weatherley spoke to his girlfriend and said, ‘I had to swallow’, she replied, ‘Yeah, I, we guessed that’ and Mr Weatherley responded by saying, ‘I hope it was wrapped properly’.”

The next morning, an officer reportedly saw Mr Weatherley out of bed at 5.00am. However, the prisoner’s cellmate rang their cell bell at 7.02am, asking for an officer to come to the cell. The report claimed that the staff member said they could not clearly hear what the cellmate was saying and that CCTV showed no officers visited the cell.

Mr Weatherley’s cellmate rang the cell bell again at 7:25am, telling an officer that the prisoner was lying on the floor fitting. An officer visited the cell and the ambulance was called at 7:28am.

According to the report, a nurse noted that Mr Weatherley was having an apparent seizure and he was placed in the recovery position before being moved to the landing outside his cell. He was given rectal diazepam which reportedly stopped the fit.

The report said: “His eyes were open and he was breathing, but he was not responsive. They continued to monitor Mr Weatherley and he was given oxygen. Paramedics arrived at Mr Weatherley’s cell at 7.46am. While they assessed Mr Weatherley, he went into cardiac arrest.”

Paramedics started CPR after noting the prisoner had gone into cardiac arrest. When asked, Mr Weatherley’s cellmate told a nurse that he had swallowed 3.5 grams of cocaine the previous day and had drunk alcohol to try and bring up the drugs.

Mr Weatherley showed no signs of life despite continued efforts by the paramedics. A prison GP pronounced the prisoner dead at 8.46am, aged 41 years old. The report stated that the pathologist concluded Mr Weatherley had died from the combined toxic effects of cocaine and methadone, both of which were found in high concentrations in his body.

After a failed attempt to visit the address of Mr Weatherley’s family, staff asked the police to notify the prisoner’s family of his death. The police told the prison at approximaterly 10.00pm on February 25, ver 36 hours after he died, that they had informed Mr Weatherley’s family of his passing.

The Ombudsman said in their report that they were satisfied staff had no reason to believe the prisoner had swallowed drugs, but criticised the 25 minutes it took for staff to respond to his cell bell. They said the delay was “unacceptable” and could be critical in future cases.

They added: “I am also concerned that there was an unacceptably long delay of 16 minutes in getting the paramedics from the prison gate to Mr Weatherley’s cell, and that Mr Weatherley’s family was not told of his death until over 36 hours after he had died.”

Staff also told the investigator that Mr Weatherley had been previously placed on closed visits after his sister tried to pass drugs to him in 2017. The investigator said they were not given any documents of this decision and when it was lifted.

HMP Thameside is privately run by Serco. David Bamford, Serco Prison Director at HMP Thameside, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Like any death in a prison, Stephen Weatherley’s death in 2018 was a tragedy. A number of lessons have been learnt in the five years since then and we have made significant improvements to our security, technology and processes.”

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