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Regional secretary with the National Education Union
Prison staff to blame for hanging suicide of teen Jake Hardy at Hindley young offender institute in Wigan
Inquest into bullied special educational needs man's suicide by hanging finds prison staff to blame for 12 failures

An inquest blamed prison staff yesterday for failures that led to a teenager boy hanging himself.

Seventeen-year-old Jake Hardy hung himself in his cell at HMYOI Hindley in Wigan on January 20 2012 and died in hospital four days later.

A jury at Bolton coroner’s court found that a series of 12 individual failures by prison staff more than minimally contributed to his death.

Jake was serving six months for affray and common assault, and before entering Hindley in December had been diagnosed with attention and conduct disorders, and was under the care of a local mental health team.

He also had special educational needs and had previously been bullied at school.

Hindley was told about this — as well as Jake’s history of self-harm.

In his first week there he told staff that other boys were trying to intimate him. Shortly after he said he would be better off dead and that officers “took the piss out of him.”

“Jake was too vulnerable and should never have gone to a place like Hindley to start with. I kept my son safe for 17 years yet Hindley couldn’t keep him safe for two months,” his mum Elizabeth said.

Campaign group Inquest co-director Deborah Coles demanded: “How many more times do inquests have to report on children dying in prisons that are rife with bullying, physical restraint and self-harm, and where there are failures to protect the lives of children in its care? The imprisonment of children is simply wrong.”

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