STEVEN MARK TRUDGILL · Prevention of Future Deaths report

On the 24th of May 2016, I concluded the inquest into the very sad death of STEVEN MARK TRUDGILL. The conclusion of the jury was Suicide.

Steven Trudgill was found hanging in his cell at Her Majesty’s Prison Highpoint on the 9th of January 2014. At the time of his death he was on an open ACCT (Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork) document. He had been remanded into custody at the age of 18 in November 2008, charged with arson with intent to endanger life, was convicted in March 2009 and received an indeterminate sentence for public protection, with a minimum period to serve of two years and two months before he could be considered for release. He had been moved from HMP Blundeston, which was due to close, to HMP Norwich on the 9th of December 2013, and then to HMP Highpoint on the 18th of December 2013.

Steven Trudgill had a long and complex mental health history dating back to his childhood with a range of different treatments and different possible diagnoses.

It was also clear that he had formed good and meaningful longstanding therapeutic relationships with mental health professionals in the recent past and, although he had expressed a wish not to go onto the mental health caseload in his new prison during his short time adjusting and settling in after his transfer to HMP Highpoint, he had been co-operative and compliant with treatment in the past (after a period of non compliance), and there was no reason to believe from the detailed picture that the evidence gave of Steven, that this could not be achievable again.

He was clearly a young man with some insight and some complex mental health issues, and the trifesetting offences and behaviour, longstanding in his case, for which he had been convicted was a form of behaviour, according to the forensic psychologists’ report, that could, in some cases, have a significant underlying psychological component. The same detailed psychological report also identified five main factors which had been recognised to underlie deliberate fire setting behaviour, and found they could all be related to Steven’s own history. It was also stated that there are currently no standardised treatment programmes for fire setters available within HM Prison Service, and a pilot that had been running was no longer accepting referrals.

A Therapeutic Community, after further assessment of Steven’s personality, was a suggested option for Steven’s care and treatment, but this option, also contained in the same psychology report prepared for the probation service in advance of any future parole hearing, was never taken forward as Steven sadly died before any further parole hearing took place.