Report exposes failures after inmate's death at HMP Lincoln
Luke Ashcroft, who suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, died in July 2020
A man died at HMP Lincoln after a prison officer falsely claimed he was being kept under constant supervision and mistakes were made over his care, a report has revealed.
Luke Ashcroft, who suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, died in July 2020 at the age of 33.
He was segregated due to persistent beliefs that there were spiders living inside him, which made him suicidal.
An investigation into his death by the Prison & Probation Ombudsman found that he wasn’t medically fit enough to be segregated, and proper checks weren’t carried out on him.
Officer Luke Thomas, who was responsible for monitoring him, was convicted of misconduct in a public office in 2023 due to falsifying records, and was sentenced to eight months in jail, suspended for 18 months.
Mr Ashcroft was sentenced to 40 months for burglary in 2018, and was released on licence in May 2020 but was recalled two days later for taking drugs.
He told mental health workers that he heard voices and that spiders had entered his body through a wound, and were living inside him.
This belief – which is known as parasitosis – worsened over the next few weeks, and he repeatedly demanded to be taken to hospital.
He barricaded himself in his cell on June 22, and was taken to the Care and Separation Unit once officers were able to get in.
A psychiatrist found that he was “vividly hallucinating” about being able to see and feel spiders, and was in an acute psychotic episode.
On the morning of June 24, Mr Ashcroft began saying he wanted to kill himself to stop the spiders, and was to be checked five times an hour to prevent suicide or self-harm.
CCTV showed that Thomas checked only once per hour between 3am and 6am, but claimed on records he was doing four or five, according to the Ombudsman’s report.
Mr Ashcroft’s emergency bell was also not answered for more than 20 minutes.
Thomas made his last check on Mr Ashcroft at 6.38am, despite claiming he checked again at 6.50am.
When a new officer came on duty shortly after, he found the prisoner lying on the floor unconscious.
Mr Ashcroft was taken to hospital, and died on July 1.
An inquest which concluded last week found that he hadn’t intended to take his own life and died by misadventure.
The Ombudsman’s report found that healthcare staff didn’t make it clear to prison officers how deeply unwell he was, and that he wasn’t fit to be segregated.
The nurse admitting him to the Care and Separation Unit had ticked both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ on a questionnaire asking if he was safe to be there.
However, it found that the overall healthcare he received was as good as if he was out of prison.
Additional CCTV has since been installed at HMP Lincoln to ensure that staff are carrying out the necessary checks.