A Midands prison has been criticised for taking 50 minutes to call in medics after two brutal inmates strangled a Huddersfield child killer in his cell.
An official report into the hostage siege and subsequent murder of Subhan Anwar at Worcestershire’s Long Lartin Prison in February 2013 has just been published and will now lead to a change in procedures there.
It found that the authorities took 50 minutes to call in paramedics who then took a further 30 minutes to reach the prison’s rural location in South Littleton, near Evesham.
The report also revealed that the two killers, who were already serving life sentences for murders committed in the 1980s and 1990s, had both taken hostages during earlier, but separate, prison sieges in 2007 and 2011. The report, from the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, added that the pair were only moved onto the vulnerable prisoner wing because they owed prison drug debts.
Gary Smith, 49, and Lee Newell, 45, blamed each other for the death of Anwar, who was tied up and strangled with a pair of jogging bottoms in his cell in a vulnerable prisoner wing on February 14.
The pair were convicted of murdering 24-year-old Anwar last September following a two-week trial at Warwick Crown Court.
Anwar was jailed for life for the murder of Deighton toddler Sanam Navsarka in February 2009 and ordered to serve a minimum of 23 years for torturing and murdering his girlfriend’s two-year-old daughter, Sanam Navsarka at their home on Riddings Road.
At the time time of her death police discovered 107 separate injuries to her tiny body including broken arms and legs which went untreated. Her mother, Zahbeena Navsarka , then 21, was sentenced to nine years in jail after she was cleared of her daughter’s murder but found guilty of manslaughter.
In the report on Anwar’s murder Newell had 47 prison disciplinary adjudications against him while Smith had 32 proven disciplinary adjudications between 1999 and 2011, according to the Birmingham Mail.
The pair were told they would never be released for killing Anwar.
The report added: “Both men had previously been involved in hostage-taking, but there had been no recent evidence to indicate that either of them posed any significant risk of violence to other prisoners.”
It criticised the time it took for an ambulance to be called, and said: “While it would not have altered the outcome for the man, we consider that an ambulance should have been called as soon as it became apparent that there was the possibility of serious injury which would require immediate medical attention.
“A delay in calling an ambulance could have serious consequences in future hostage incidents where a prisoner is still alive. We therefore make the following recommendation: the Governor of Long Lartin should ensure that in the event of a hostage incident, staff call an ambulance immediately if there is any indication that a prisoner has been, or could be, injured.”
A response from the prison to the report read: “The relevant contingency plans have now been updated to specifically state that an ambulance is called immediately.”
A prison service spokesman said: “We will look closely at the findings of the inquest and any report the coroner may make to see what lessons can be learned.”
