Prison officer said murderous inmate ‘probably laughing’ – died shortly after

A detention officer at a Greater Manchester prison dismissed concerns for the welfare of a murderous inmate who later died as he was “probably laughing”, a report claims.

Shafaq Khan, 52, was found unresponsive in his cell at HMP Hindley in December 2022. Khan, who is serving an eight-year sentence for manslaughter, was rushed to hospital.

However, he remained ill and died there 10 weeks later. A report into his death has now criticized the level of medical care he received at Category C prison in Bickershaw village, near Wigan.

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It also revealed that a prison officer’s response to a concern raised about Khan by a fellow inmate in the hours before he was discovered sparked both internal and police investigations.

Former shopkeeper Khan was jailed after fumes from an electricity generator he installed in the back room of a shop killed the tenant who lived in the flat above.

Father-of-six Jao Afonso, 58, died of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by fumes from a petrol-powered electricity generator that had been installed in a poorly ventilated back warehouse of the convenience store in -a converted former pub on Wood Street. in Middleton.

The building’s owner, Mushtaq Ahmed, and Khan, who ran the shop, engaged the generator to supply power to the shop and all the flats above it after Electricity North West discovered the meter had been bypassed and cut off the supply.

They ignored the generator’s safety instructions by placing it in an enclosed space without adequate ventilation and risked the safety of customers, employees and tenants by connecting to the grid.

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The pair ignored customers’ concerns and even revved the car to increase power, causing more fumes. Exhaust from the generator rose into the apartment above and killed Mr. Afonso.

During his trial, jurors were shown a picture Khan, a father who also ran a taxi business, posted on Facebook just five days after the tragedy, which showed him posing outside the shop with the caption “Shop open as normal your local mid range cheap store. Claims he made during his trial that he did not have the experience to search the Internet about the dangers of using a gasoline generator were mocked.

Khan, formerly of Gainsborough Road, Rochdale, denied manslaughter by gross negligence but was found guilty after a trial. He was also convicted of four health and safety breaches by installing the generator, and in February 2021 was sentenced to eight years in prison. Ahmed, then 51 and of Roundthorn Road in Oldham, was jailed for nine years.

“She said she thought she was dying”

Khan was first sent to HMP Forest Bank in Salford before being transferred to Hindley on 26 April 2022. He had a “significant medical history” which included high blood pressure and type two diabetes.

In June, his family doctor referred him to hospital because of high blood sugar, but there was “no evidence that the medical staff followed up on this referral as they should have”, the report by the Ombudsman for Prisons and Probation, Adrian Usher, published last month, documents.

He is said to have had numerous consultations in prison and secondary services over the following months. On December 16, he said he rang the emergency bell after saying he had not been feeling well for the past few days.

He was seen by a nurse later that evening who told him he might have the flu. A prisoner in the same wing told police he saw Mr Khan coming up the stairs and that he “looked very sick”.

He asked Khan if he was OK and he said “Mr Khan said no and he thought he was dying”.

“Mr Khan said he felt terrible and had never felt like this in his life,” the report on his death said. The inmate said he did not tell staff about what Mr Khan said.

However, one prisoner said that on the morning of December 19, Khan’s cellmate told him that Khan had been in since the previous morning (Sunday, December 18), which was “unusual”.

Around 8:10 a.m., the prisoner spoke to a prison officer, named in the report as Officer A, and “told him he needed to call 911 as Mr. Khan had been asleep for 22 hours,” the report said .

“He said the officer chuckled and responded by saying Mr Khan must have been laughing,” it added. It says “the officer did not contact medical assistance or check on Mr. Khan.”

He was found unresponsive at 11:14 a.m. when an officer entered his cell to offer him lunch. He went into cardiac arrest but was resuscitated and taken to hospital. He died there on 28 February 2022.

At an inquest into his death, held in May this year, the coroner concluded that Khan died as a result of “a combination of pre-existing, naturally diagnosed illnesses, newly diagnosed pancreatic cancer and recognized complications arising from from the combined effects of type. two diabetes, one recent viral infection and associated idiopathic cardiac arrest”.

“Following the death of Mr Khan, Greater Manchester Police opened an investigation into the actions of Officer A,” the report said. “They were particularly concerned that he would be repulsed by the prisoners’ concerns about Mr Khan’s health.”

However, it said: “Police concluded there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a criminal investigation and no charges of serious misconduct were brought against him.”

Adding: “Hindley prison administrators carried out an internal investigation into the actions of Officer A on 19 December 2022. The investigation concluded that he would receive advice and guidance.”

“Care was not up to required standards”

Mr Usher said a clinical examiner from NHS England concluded that “the care Mr Khan received at HMP Hindley was not of the standard required and therefore not equivalent to what he might have expected to receive in the community “.

“She was concerned about the lack of monitoring of Mr Khan’s high blood pressure and diabetes management and lack of communication between the prison’s GP services and medical staff,” he said.

Adding: “The clinical reviewer was unable to say whether better monitoring of Mr Khan’s diabetic control and follow-up of referral to endocrinology would have affected the outcome for him.

“However, she concluded that there should have been better monitoring of Mr Khan’s blood sugar and citizens. The clinical reviewer considered that there were missed opportunities for further monitoring of Mr Khan’s diabetic control.

Among his recommendations, he said: “The chief nursing officer should ensure there is prompt and effective communication between GP services and the nursing team to ensure alerts and triggers for inmates are properly monitored “.

And that: “The Chief Nursing Officer should ensure that medical staff complete a full set of clinical observations, including a NEWS2 score, when an inmate requires a health assessment to ensure that patients who are deteriorating or at risk of deterioration will have a timely initial assessment by a competent clinical decision maker.”

The Ministry of Justice has been contacted for comment.

A spokesperson for Spectrum Community Health CIC, which provides healthcare at HMP Hindley, said: “Spectrum Community Health CIC acknowledges your inquiry in response to the recently published PPO report regarding the very sad death of a patient at HMP Hindley.

“We express our deepest condolences to the patient’s family and those who knew him. As with all Death in Custody reviews, we are fully committed to working closely with staff, HM Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS) and NHS England to ensure that all recommendations made in the report relate to the service we have provided were fully engaged and implemented.”