A damning report has been released regarding the prison care of a monstrous paedophile who died while serving a 16-year sentence for sexually abusing three girls.
Frederick Heard, 87, died from pneumonia in 2019 while imprisoned at Parc prison in Bridgend, Wales, but an investigation into his care has found it to be “completely unacceptable”.
Heard, from Newport, was sentenced in 2012 for a string of offences, including indecent assaults, indecency with a child, attempted rape, and other sexual offences, committed over a 30-year period.
Ombudsman Sue McAllister wrote that a few years into Heard’s imprisonment, it became clear he “had no idea that he was serving a sentence in prison and that being locked in a cell caused him mental distress and physical injury”.
Despite suffering from vascular dementia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Heard was repeatedly refused help from the local mental health team for older adults, who claimed they were “not resourced to see prison patients.”
This led to a prolonged impasse in his care, with the prisons ombudsman, Sue McAllister, issuing a scathing report on the matter, almost six years after Heard’s death.
“In July 2017, prison, healthcare and social care staff held a multidisciplinary meeting,” wrote McAllister. “They were concerned because Mr Heard was distressed because he did not understand he was in prison and was injuring himself banging on his cell door at night.”
In March 2019, prison staff decided to fit padding to Mr Heard’s cell door due to concerns for his safety as he kept striking it, reports WalesOnline.
Just three days later, he was rushed to hospital after injuring his hand by banging the cell door. He developed pneumonia and stayed in hospital for 10 days.
Upon his return to Parc, his health took a significant turn for the worse, particularly his breathlessness from COPD.
In July, he was hospitalised once more and the following month he succumbed to bronchopneumonia. He was granted compassionate release on the day of his demise.
Ms McAllister noted: “Within a few years of arriving at Parc it was clear that Mr Heard had no idea that he was serving a sentence in prison. I am very concerned that arguments about who was funded to assess and support Mr Heard’s dementia meant that his needs were not met and that this significantly affected his quality of life.
“This impasse should have been resolved promptly by Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board [now known as Swansea Bay University health board] and I consider it completely unacceptable that the situation was allowed to continue for years and remained unresolved at the time of Mr Heard’s death.”
A clinical reviewer sharply criticised the NHS health board, stating: “It appears somewhere in this argument over funding that managers or clinicians in the NHS health board forgot that a patient was suffering at the heart of this, leading to significant distress for him, other prisoners, and indeed the HMP Parc staff doing their best for him.”
The ombudsman’s investigation revealed that prison staff failed to properly monitor Heard’s COPD and that the health board neglected to provide necessary specialist dementia care for years, labelling the oversight as “completely unacceptable.”
Following Heard’s passing, Cwm Taf Morgannwg University health board has taken over healthcare duties at the prison.