UK: Three more suspended at Wormwood Scrubs
01 January 1999
The governor of Wormwood Scrubs prison, west London, suspended three more prison officers in connection with an ongoing police investigation into assaults on prisoners in December. The investigation was launched after the solicitors, Hickman and Rose, compiled a dossier of the assaults (see Statewatch, vol 8, nos 2, 3/4 & 5). The latest suspensions follow information received by the police during the course of their investigation. The Director of Security at the Prison Service, Tony Pearson, issued the following statement:
"Following the initial inquiry, announced last March, into alleged brutality by staff I referred a number of cases to the police for investigation. Their investigation is now well underway and they have interviewed many members of staff and some prisoners, manly for corroborative purposes. However during the course of the police investigation further information relating to officers not currently suspended has come to light. Given the seriousness of the allegations and having studied this information I am satisfied that it is entirely appropriate for these three officers to be suspended."
HM Prison service press release 7.12.98.