Risk assessment would have prevented custody officer’s death

A custody officer’s death could have been prevented if contractor Serco had proper risk assessments in place, a court heard.

Security giant Serco is facing a huge fine for breaching health and safety laws after Lorraine Barwell, 54, was killed by Humphrey Burke on 29 June 2015.

Paranoid schizophrenic Burke, 28, was being moved from the cells to a van at Blackfriars Crown Court when he attacked Ms Barwell.

The first kick knocked Ms Barwell to her knees and the second fractured her jaw causing a brain haemorrhage.

The grandmother, from Romford, Essex, died two days later on July 1 after her life support machine was switched off.

Burke – who dropped out of a law and philosophy course at Oxford Brookes University in 2014 – later admitted manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.

After a series of hearings he was finally sent to a psychiatric hospital indefinitely in January this year.

Serco admitted failing to discharge general health, safety and welfare by exposing its employees to a risk of violence from prisoners between January 2014 and March 2017.

The company also admitted breaching health and safety laws in relation to Bernadette Crawley, in a second incident at Woolwich Crown Court.

Serco faces a huge fine but Mr Justice Baker is hearing evidence before he passes sentence.

Security expert Walter Brennan told the court: ‘It’s difficult to know exactly what went wrong that day, but what would could have reduced much of the uncertainty is if staff had been assessed as competent to carry out an intervention- they were not competent.

‘If they had had the chance to state that on a form it could possibly have resulted in Lorraine Barwell not dying that day.

‘In my opinion if they had had in place risk assessments, had a good training system with a follow-up system, they could have made it a much better situation for the staff.

‘In 25 years I’ve never known an organisation to have such a dearth of risk assessment.

‘It was a failure to recognise a person’s human rights.’

Prosecutor Gordon Menzies asked: ‘What might happen if an unplanned adhoc approach is taken without proper risk assessment.’

Mr Brennan replied: ‘Then there would be a significant risk of injury including death.

‘There was a lot of information known about Humphrey Burke which was never shared, his violence towards other prisoners, violence towards staff.

‘It was never transferred to court staff to enable them to make a good, safe assessment of Mr Burke and what he needed, knowing about his propensity to become violent.’

Earlier Mr Menzies said: ‘In January 2015 Mr Burke was identified as being a risk to staff.

‘He was someone described as aggressive and ready to launch an attack at anyone opening his cell.

‘He was identified as someone who could lash out for no reason and you could not read him or know how he would react.

‘It is accepted on behalf of the defence that that information was not adequately conveyed to the people who needed to know.

‘The prosecution case is that they simply had no idea what they were dealing with.

‘Ms Barwell raised concerns about what was being asked of staff.

‘Nothing was done by Serco in response to what she raised.’

That suggestion is disputed by Serco.

Prison custody officer Annie Monnorman earlier told the hearing: ‘I believe he (Burke) was just sitting there in his cell, I could see Lorraine talking at the door, talking to him saying “come on, we need to go” and encouraging him to go. I don’t believe he got up and talked to her.

‘I think she walked to him, she walked into the cell. She cuffed him and she walked to him, walked to the door. When they walked to the door of the cell he fell to the floor.

‘He was physically cuffed behind his back, we did that before they got him up.

‘Lorraine has hold of his legs, the two gentlemen pull Burke up to his feet but his head it was down, so he’s sort of in an “L” shape position. The head stays down and he’s up on his feet.’

Ms Monnorman demonstrated how Ms Barwell crouched holding Burke’s head down.

‘The reason is that if he starts thrashing around, he could hurt himself.

‘But as soon as they pulled him into the “L” position, he just lifted his head and he kicked her, it was that quick.’

The hearing at the Old Bailey continues but Mr Justice Baker is expected to pass sentence in the new year.