Report of the Inquiry into the circumstances of the Death of Bernard ...

een “fitted up” by officers on G wing as payback for an incident when he was at Risley.
Governor McColm said that he adjourned the hearing to call other witnesses, SO Nuttall,
and Officers Downs and Shaw. The hearing recommenced after about an hour and a
half. The hearing itself lasted about 20 minutes. He said that the weight of evidence was
such that he had no alternative but to find Mr Lodge guilty.
Officer Gartside
11.30 Officer Mike Gartside was one of the three segregation officers and an escorting
officer at the adjudication. He told the Prison Service investigators that at the
adjudication Mr Lodge got very upset as the evidence was being heard. He was
protesting his innocence and was emphatic that he “just didn’t do it”. At one time he
started crying. SO Knight passed him a Kleenex and the governor gave him time to
compose himself. At the end of the adjudication he was quiet and resigned. Officer
Gartside went off duty at lunchtime
11.31 Officer Gartside said he had no reason to believe Mr Lodge had a history of selfharm
or was likely to self-harm. He had not written the conduct report for the adjudication
and did not know whether Mr Lodge’s records were available in the segregation unit. He
commented that the F2052SH booklet is conspicuous in a prisoner’s file because of its
distinctive colour.
SO Knight
11.32 SO Ronald Knight told the Prison Service investigation that Sonny Lodge did not
give him any impression at all that he was a person liable to self-harm; he was not aware
of a past history of self-harming and he did not know that Sonny Lodge had been on an
F2052SH. According to the Treasury Solicitor’s summary note of the inquest, SO Knight
said he was aware that Mr Lodge had been subject to an F2052SH but this did not give
him cause for concern, rather he just needed to be kept an eye on.
11.33 SO Knight told the inquest that Sonny Lodge appeared quite cheerful at
breakfast, that during the adjudication he appeared quite emotional and at one point he
might have offered him a tissue. He did not recall Governor McColm or anyone else
coming to him with any information about Sonny after the adjudication.
11.34 He recalled that during the adjudication Sonny had said something about his past
catching up with him. SO Knight thought this was in connection with the fact that Officer
Bowcock was a Liverpool officer.
89