'No wrong doing' by prison staff over Edinburgh man's death
An Edinburgh man hanged himself in his cell just a days after seeing a prison psychiatrist who noted he was extremely distressed, a sheriff ruled today.
An Edinburgh man hanged himself in his cell just a days after seeing a prison psychiatrist who noted he was extremely distressed, a sheriff ruled today.
Kevin Gartland, who was just 24, killed himself with his belt in HMP Glenochil, Clackmannanshire, less than two months after beginning a seven and half year jail term for blasting out the bedroom window of his ex-girlfriend's home with a pump-action sawn-off shotgun.
In a fit of jealousy, he had fired two shots at Robyn Murtagh's home in Edinburgh in July 2015, showering her with glass.
A Fatal Accident Inquiry held at Alloa Sheriff Court last month MARCH heard that Gartland, also from Edinburgh, was admitted to Glenochil from Saughton Prison, Edinburgh, where he had been on remand, on December 4th, 2015, just a few days after he was sentenced.
He expressed no thoughts of suicide on arrival, but on January 4th he asked to see a jail nurse and said he was "hearing voices" and having negative thoughts.
She referred him to a prison psychiatrist who noted two weeks later he was "distressed" and prescribed medication.
But neither the psychiatrist nor the nurse placed him on suicide watch.
On January 26th, 2016, he was found dead in his cell at 7.15 am.
He had hanged himself using his own belt, threaded through the slats of an unoccupied second bunk, and was already cold and stiff when warders found him.
In his written determination, issued today, Sheriff Christopher Shead exonerated prison officers at the high security jail who had dealt with Gartland, saying that as far as they were concerned he was not showing "any obvious" signs of low mood.
The sheriff said he also accepted that, at the time of his arrival at Glenochil, there was nothing to indicate that Gartland was likely to try to kill himself.
But he said on the other hand he had referred himself to the prison mental health nurse and was then seen by the psychiatrist.
Sheriff Shead said: "Looked at with the benefit of hindsight it might be said that there were signs of significant illness that were noted at these consultations. There was a family history of suicide.
"Bearing those factors in mind careful consideration requires to be given to whether more could reasonably have been done to prevent the deceased from taking his own life."
But the sheriff said that none of the parties at the inquiry - the procurator fiscal, the family's lawyer, or the prison service - had challenged the steps taken by the nurse or the consultant psychiatrist, and "no expert evidence was led from which the court would be entitled to conclude that there was room for criticism of what was done".
He ruled: "Despite the tragic outcome, the court should be slow to venture criticism of those involved in the deceased's care and management in the absence of a proper basis for doing so.
"On the evidence before me, I consider there is no basis for making such criticism... despite the indications of poor health in January 2016 it does not seem to me that it could reasonably have been foreseen that the deceased would taken his own life when he did."
The inquiry in March lasted just 60 minutes - including time taken by legal submissions.
The Crown called evidence from just three witnesses, prison officer Andrew Latto who was the first to find the body; another warder, Amanda McPherson, who locked Gartland down the night before and said she had noticed "nothing untoward"; and the 24-year-old mental health nurse Cara McIntosh, who has since left the prison service.
In evidence, Miss McIntosh said Gartland had told her that in the time leading up to the attack on 24-year-old Robyn's home he had been taking "as much" cocaine, Valium and legal highs as he could afford, but without drugs in jail he felt he was "in a prison within a prison".
However neither she nor the prison psychiatrist felt there was any reason to place Gartland on "Act to Care", the suicide risk management strategy of the Scottish Prison Service.
Miss McIntosh said: "He wasn't expressing any suicidal thoughts. He was enrolling in the gym and education. He had got a job in the kitchen and he was making plans for the future."
Gartland admitted endangering the life of pretty Robyn when he appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2015.
Before the attack, he had messaged her: "I have nothing to lose now. No one gets away with playing with my emotions like this. I promise."
Broken glass was blasted all over the floor of her bedroom and on her bed. She rolled out of the bed and crawled through to the hall before hearing Gartland make his getaway on a motorbike.