Inquest begins into hanging death of child sex assaulter at Saskatchewan prison

5-7-2012 Canada:

SASKATOON - A makeshift noose and a suicide note were found in the Saskatoon cell of man who was awaiting sentencing for child sexual assault.

That's what Sgt. Rob Cleveland told an inquest Monday into the death of 27-year-old Travis Parenteau at the Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre in June 2010.

The inquiry's goal is to determine when, where and how Parenteau died and recommend how it could be prevented in the future.

Cleveland photographed the cell where Parenteau's body was found the day before Parenteau was to be sentenced for sexually assaulting a child.

The six jurors will be able to question the 10 witnesses, corrections workers, police officers and health professionals.

Also in court are Parenteau's mother and two sisters, who have been granted standing status at the inquiry, which means they are able to cross examine the witnesses. ..Source.. by The Canadian Press

Paedophile killer 'was murdered': Post-mortem examination confirms child rapist was strangled in jail cell

10-20-1993 United Kingdom:

LESLIE BAILEY, a convicted paedophile killer, was murdered in his cell at Whitemoor Prison despite being kept in a wing apart from other prisoners, it was confirmed yesterday.

An inquest in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, was told that post-mortem examinations had established Bailey was strangled with a ligature, which was found near his body, on 7 October. Police originally said they were not ruling out the possibility he had killed himself.

Detective Superintendent Bob Wordsworth, who is leading the inquiry, said afterwards: 'I can confirm that, as far as we are concerned, we are now treating the matter as a murder inquiry. This is based on medical evidence and other examinations by Dr Nat Carey, a Home Office pathologist.

'We will be concentrating within the prison. We have had superb co- operation from the governor and his staff as well as co-operation from the inmates. I hope we will be successful.' Mr Wordsworth said that although there were reports that Bailey had received threats, there was no evidence that he was generally hated within the prison.

Yesterday's inquest was adjourned after hearing evidence of identity from a prison officer, and of the cause of death.

Bailey was one of about 100 'Rule 43' prisoners at Whitemoor, segregated from other inmates because they could be subjected to violence. Rule 43 prisoners - so called because of the prison rules which provide for their segregation - include child murderers and abusers, paedophiles, other sex offenders and, in some prisons, informers.

Bailey's body was discovered during a 'free association' period when inmates were allowed to move around the wing and visit each other in their cells. The wing is entirely separate from the rest of the prison, which is a modern, high security establishment housing mainly Category A inmates.

Police will now continue to question all the inmates who were on the wing at the time of the murder but are likely to come up against a wall of silence which will make it difficult to establish the truth. There have been four other murders in prisons in England and Wales in the last five years.

Bailey was serving a life sentence after being convicted in 1989 of the manslaughter of a male prostitute Jason Swift, 14, and admitting the murder of Barry Lewis, aged six. Both boys were kidnapped and subjected to gang rapes by a group of east London paedophiles, who police believe may have been involved in several more child murders.

In October last year, Bailey was given two additional life sentences after pleading guilty to the manslaughter in June 1984 of Mark Tildesley, from Wokingham, Berkshire. The boy's body has never been found. The three other men convicted with Bailey are being held in Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight. One of them, Sidney Cook, 66, was assaulted in his cell last week. Security at the jail is believed to have been increased. ..Source.. by TERRY KIRBY , Crime Correspondent

Sex offender possibly murdered

12-6-2011 Canada:

Police believe a sexual offender who died last week while serving time in Mission Institution was murdered.

Officers with Correction Service Canada (CSC) discovered an unresponsive male inside his cell at the medium security prison around 10: 45 p.m. on Friday.

Emergency services were called to the scene, however the victim could not be revived and was pronounced dead.

As a result, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) was called to the scene, and an autopsy was scheduled for early this week.

"Investigators continue to look into this suspicious death," Sgt. Jennifer Pound of IHIT said in a press release.

"It appears to be a homicide and the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team . . . has been called in and has since taken conduct of the investigation."

CSC identified the victim as 39-year-old Troy Squires, although the IHIT would not confirm that because the victim's next of kin had yet to be notified.

Squires had been serving an indeterminate sentence for forcible confinement, sexual assault, uttering threats to cause death/harm, assault with a weapon and overcome resistance. He began serving that sentence in January of 2006. The CSC will also review the incident, said Brandon Banks, assistant warden of management services for CSC, in a press release.

Mission Institution is a medium security facility that houses roughly 250 inmates. ..Source.. by Cam Tucker, The Times

Child molester killed in Canadian prison

11-11-2008 Canada:

The inmate killed in a riot at a Canadian prison was a convicted child molester serving an indefinite sentence, officials said Sunday.

Michael Gibbon, 39, was the only prisoner to die in the riot Saturday night at Mountain Institution, a medium-security prison in British Columbia, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported. Dave Lefebvre, a spokesman for the Correctional Service of Canada, said another inmate was hospitalized.

Gibbon, a lifelong resident of Chilliwack, a city west of Vancouver and a few miles north of the U.S. border, was sentenced to three months in 1992 for molesting a boy. He was imprisoned in 1997 for child pornography and sexual assault.

Inmates began breaking windows in the gymnasium at about 9:45 p.m., Lefebvre said. As the riot escalated, they began attacking each other.

Homicide investigators from Vancouver were called in to investigate Gibbon's death. The Correctional Service and the coroner will conduct independent investigations, Lefebvre said. ..News Source.. by UPI

UK- HE CAN'T HURT ANYONE ELSE

5-24-2008 United Kingdom:

The killer of a Cheltenham woman has been found dead in his prison cell.Shirley Cotton-Betteridge's family now say justice has been done.

The barmaid was 22 years old when psychopath Paul McMilan stabbed her more than 40 times.

McMilan was sentenced to life in Broadmoor psychiatric prison in 2002.

But on Thursday morning he was found unconscious in his cell, dying minutes later.

Speaking from his home in Whaddon, Shirley's stepfather, Graham Morgan, described it as "brilliant news".

He said: "I was sat in my van when I got the call.

"My first gut feeling was 'they are going to release him'. So when they said he was dead, I thought it was great. At least now he won't hurt anyone else."

Graham became stepfather to Shirley and her sisters Anna, Christie and Lucy when Shirley was four years old.

Cheltenham-born Shirley went to St Benedict's School and trained as a hairdresser at Gloscat, working in His Knibbs.

"People just don't realise what we've been through and are still going through," Graham said.

"Not a night goes by when I don't talk to Shirley.

"We don't speak about her much, because we don't want to upset each other.

"Sometimes I see a girl in the street who looks just like her, and I want to go up to her and speak to her as if it's Shirley but I don't.

"You couldn't have asked for a better daughter.

"She was the typical girl next door, you could have a laugh with her and nobody had a bad word to say about her."

Shirley was working as a barmaid when McMilan, who she knew from work, followed her into the office of the Figureheadamp; Firkin pub in Bristol on August 29, 2001.

He punched and kicked her to the ground before stabbing her to death.

Builder Graham didn't work for nearly a year after her death, and still visits Shirley's grave every Sunday to take flowers and make sure it is spotless.

Graham said he and Shirley's mother, Anita Nelder, were still angry at the justice system for releasing McMilan early from a previous sentence, leaving him free to kill.

He was convicted of indecently assaulting a girl when he was 17 and sentenced to three years behind bars in 1999, but he was released on August 30, 2000 after serving 16 months.

After release he failed to attend a sex offenders' course, meetings with his probation officer and a mental health assessment before killing Shirley.

Graham said: "They let Shirley down and then they let us down.

"If it wasn't for them, she would still be here.

"We would probably have had grandkids by now. They have taken everything from us."

But he reserved most of his anger for McMilan, saying he could never forgive him for what he had done.

"I wish the death penalty had still been around for the likes of him," said the distraught dad.

"Paul McMilan has never, ever given a reason for what he did, and that's what really hurts.

"I promised Shirley I wouldn't let this happen to any other girl and now I feel like I've kept my promise."

Shirley's sister Laura, 25, said she hoped people would learn from her death. She told the Echo: "I'm sad for his parents but happy about him because he's not going to do it again.

"If he hadn't been released in the first place two lives would have been saved." ..more.. by RIC SUMNER

Inquest probes pedophile's slaying by cellmate

6-19-2007 Canada:
Mentally ill inmates should be housed separately from other prisoners, a schizophrenic man who killed his cellmate four years ago told a coroner's inquest.

Daniel Labelle was testifying Monday via videoconference at the inquest in Ottawa into the death of 46-year-old Robert Hatton in 2003.

Hatton was intellectually disabled and had been convicted seven times for sexual offences against children, but was being held in the Ottawa Carleton Regional Detention Centre for a parole violation.

Labelle strangled Hatton in June 2003 and was later convicted of manslaughter. He's now serving an eight-year sentence at Penetanguishene Psychiatric Hospital.

Labelle, speaking from the hospital, said that before the slaying, he was scared that his cellmate, who weighed about 300 pounds, would try to rape him.

He said he asked repeatedly to be moved to another cell, but his request was denied.

Labelle apologized for what happened, and wanted the inquest to recommend that people with mental illness be housed separately.

Sister backs separate housing idea
As part of the inquest, Hatton's sister, Beverly Post, spoke from Ottawa to Labelle during the videoconference Monday.

She agreed that people with mental illness should be housed separately, and said so should people who have been convicted of sex crimes.

"Both of those types of individuals are ill in one way or another and really need to be segregated from the rest of the population," she told the CBC following the day's testimony.

Pedophiles, in particular, are often targets of violence by other prisoners.

Post said the inquest was useful, allowing her and Labelle to tell their sides of the story.

"I've explained to him … my brother that I knew and grew up with," said Post after testifying.

She described Hatton as being "like a monster bird in a little wee nest."

Despite his enormous size, she said, "he didn't have a mean bone in his body. He couldn't be riled, he couldn't be angered and he certainly would have fallen over if Daniel had even pushed him."

But she said she was not angry at Labelle, as she recognized he was a sick man.

"He expressed horrendous anxiety about being celled with my brother and he didn't feel that the powers that be listened to him," she said. "He didn't anticipate murdering, and I honestly believe that."

The inquest is expected to end Friday. ..more.. by CBC News

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Construction put prisoner in killer’s way
6-19-2007 Canada:

Ideally, inmates with psychological problems are not supposed to be put in the same jail cell as high-risk offenders such as pedophiles, a coroner's inquest heard Tuesday. But crowding is often a problem at the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre - and in the spring of 2003, construction made the situation even worse.

That is how Daniel Labelle, a schizophrenic inmate at the facility, ended up in the same cell as Robert Hatton, a convicted pedophile, Jean-Marc Joly, security manager at the centre, testified.

The match turned out to be deadly, as Mr. Labelle killed Mr. Hatton on June 8, 2003. An autopsy revealed Mr. Hatton died of asphyxiation.

"We just didn't have the cell space to have everyone who has a psychological disorder to have their own cells," Mr. Joly testified. A lack of cell space wasn't the centre's only problem.

A lack of communication between departments in the facility also may have been a contributing factor in Mr. Hatton's death. Tuesday, the psychiatrist contracted to assess Mr. Labelle once a month testified he did not have access to the inmate's psychological, health and criminal files.

Dr. Rufino Balmaceda, a psychiatrist with the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, said Mr. Labelle appeared "fit" and "not psychotic" just less than a week before he murdered his cellmate. It was determined only after the killing that Mr. Labelle suffered from serious psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and, on June 8, 2003, he was taking one-tenth of the medication required to maintain a healthy mental state.

Mr. Labelle, 33, is now serving an eight-year sentence at the Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre, after admitting to the crime in November 2006.

Mr. Labelle and Mr. Hatton shared a cell at the detention centre for nearly three weeks starting in late May 2003 as the facility was undergoing renovations. At that time, prison staff placed inmates in cells together based on their psychological problems and their behaviour in jail, but did not take their crimes into account, Mr. Joly said. He did not explain why the decision was made to place Mr. Labelle in a cell with Mr. Hatton.

In recent years, Ontario judges have declared illegal the practice of sending mentally ill people who have been charged with crimes to jail until beds come open at the forensic units of psychiatric hospitals. Yet, because of a lack of beds, the practice continues.

Mr. Joly testified that Mr. Labelle got into repeated fights with other cellmates, and often lashed out, exhibiting erratic behaviour. But Dr. Balmaceda said he was unaware of any such behaviour.

On May 28, in his last report before the killing, he wrote that Mr. Labelle was "not as anxious" and was "sleeping well. I didn't get any sense he was going to be acting up," he testified Tuesday, suggesting that the system would better serve inmates if there were just one health file accessible by all departments.

Currently, psychological, psychiatric and criminal files are not available between departments in order to protect the inmates' privacy, Dr. Balmaceda said.

The inquest also heard from Nick Kennedy, the corrections officer who first noticed Mr. Hatton was unresponsive on June 8, 2003.

Mr. Kennedy said he was serving lunch to the inmates just before 1 p.m. when Mr. Hatton, who appeared to be sleeping, did not respond. He said Mr. Labelle answered for his cellmate, saying that Mr. Hatton "doesn't want to eat."

Suspicious, Mr. Kennedy said he entered the cell and discovered Mr. Hatton was not breathing and did not have a pulse. He called for medical treatment and began to perform CPR.

Mr. Labelle appeared calm that day and seemed content with his cellmate, Mr. Kennedy testified.
But just the day before, the inquest learned Mr. Labelle approached corrections officer Pierre Patenaude at least seven times with written and verbal requests for a cell change.

On Monday, Mr. Labelle testified via video-link from Penetanguishene, saying he wanted to change cells because he didn't want to be housed with a pedophile. Because his numerous requests for a cell change were denied, Mr. Labelle told the inquest he planned to start a fight with Mr. Hatton to get the attention of jail officials. He said he never intended to kill Mr. Hatton.

Mr. Patenaude testified he was fed up with Mr. Labelle's constant requests and threw one of his written requests in the garbage can.

"You could never reason with inmate Labelle," Mr. Patenaude said. "There was always an issue. It was never smooth sailing, never a good day with him."

The inquest continues Wednesday. The five-member jury is expected to make recommendations on how to prevent a case like this from happening again. ..more.. by Ottawa Citizen