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Killer threatened prison officers

12 August 2008
A man jailed for killing an Aberdeen father has been punished again after threatening prison officers.

Shaun Paton was sentenced to 10 years in 2006 after being found guilty of the culpable homicide of Dean Jamieson.

Paton had been serving part of his sentence at Craiginches in Aberdeen but threatened prison officers when told he was being moved to another jail.

He admitted breach of the peace and was sentenced to six months, to be served concurrently with his other sentence.

Mr Jamieson, 30, was found near Aberdeen in April 2006 after he was robbed, stripped and left to die.

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Staff in children’s prisons have been forbidden to use physical restraint to control disruptive youngsters, after an Appeal Court ruling yesterday.      view the thread
From The Times
July 29, 2008

Three judges quashed a move to broaden the circumstances in which staff could restrain children in secure units, saying that this was a breach of their human rights.

As a result of the ruling, officers in child prisons can use restraint methods only to prevent inmates escaping from custody, causing injury to themselves, damaging property or inciting another inmate to escape or damage property.

New rules allowing wider use of restraint techniques in secure training centres had been brought in to legiti-mise practices by contractors running four centres holding young offenders and suspects aged 12-17. Private companies running the centres lobbied for the change, saying it would be difficult to keep order without the power to restrain youngsters physically. The rule change was introduced last June after the deaths of two youths in separate incidents in 2004.

Gareth Myatt, 15, was asphyxiated while he was being restrained by three staff members at Rainsbrook secure training centre in Northamptonshire. Adam Rickwood, 14, hanged himself after being restrained in the secure training centre at Hassockfield, Co Durham.

In a recent appeal brought by a youth, known as RC, Lord Justice Buxton said the restraint methods amounted to “inhuman and degrading treatment” contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights.

The ruling was critical of the way in which the four secure training centres – Rainsbrook, Hassockfield, Oakhill, in Milton Keynes, and Medway, in Kent – were run.

SIGN OUR PETITION TO PROTECT PRISON OFFICERS ACROSS THE UK      view the thread
Sign the petition!
As the Prison Population increases, so does the number of assaults on Prison Officers. We call upon The Prime Minister to equip Officers in the Female and YOI estates with Extendable Batons in order to protect themselves and their colleagues and give them the same protection as their colleagues in the adult male estate.