Prevention of Future Deaths reports · 2018

Christopher Hutton

Regulation 28 report to prevent future deaths, reference 2018-0011, written 12 Jan 2018. A coroner writes one of these when an inquest reveals a risk that could cause further deaths unless something changes.

Date of report12 Jan 2018
Reference2018-0011
DeceasedChristopher Hutton
CoronerAlison Mutch
Coroner areaManchester South
CategoryOther related deaths
Sourcejudiciary.uk record · original PDF
Responses published1

The report

Text recovered by OCR from a scanned PDF. OCR is imperfect: check anything you rely on against the source PDF. Reproduced verbatim, including the scan's own layout.

REGULATION 28: REPORT TO PREVENT FUTURE DEATHS.

REGULATION 28 REPORT TO PREVENT FUTURE DEATHS
THIS REPORT IS BEING SENT TO: The Director of the National Probation Service

CORONER

! am, Alison Mutch, Senior Coroner, for the coroner area of South Manchester
CORONER'S LEGAL POWERS

( make this report under paragraph 7, Schedule 5, of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009
and regulations 28 and 29 of the Coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013

INVESTIGATION and INQUEST

On 190/07/2017, | commenced an investigation into the death of Christopher Stewart
HUTTON. The investigation concluded on the 8” January 2018 and the conciusion was
one of Suicide. The medical cause of death was 1a) Hanging.

CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DEATH
The deceased is a 48yr old single male who lives alone in a four bedroom detached
property in an affluent area of Sale. In 2015 the Male was convicted for a number of
offences, he is on the sex offender register and under supervision until 2021.

On the 30th June 2017 his probation officer reported to Police that he had failed to
attend a probation appointment with his supervisor on the 29/6. Officers attended the

address but got no reply, they spoke to a neighbour who had a spare key and entered
the house, they commenced a search and found him hanging and clearly dead in the

upstairs back bedroom, he had put a butchers hook on the door and used what looked
like a neck tie as a ligature his feet were a few inches from the ground, he was clothed
and the indentations were consistent with the ligature used.
CORONER’S CONCERNS

During the course of the inquest the evidence revealed matters giving rise to concern. In
my opinion there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken. In the
circumstances it is my statutory duty to report to you.

The MATTERS OF CONCERN are as follows. —

(1) As part of his sentence, the deceased had been referred for an intensive
Probation treatment programme. This formed a key part of the sentence. He
was anxious to complete that part of the order. He had indicated that he would
find it beneficial to complete the course. Despite the time that had passed since
sentencing, he had not commenced the treatment plan. The reason given to the
Court was that there was a high volume of demand and significant backlogs
which meant that allocating places was very challenging.

ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN

In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and | believe you have the
power to take such action.
YOUR RESPONSE

You are under a duty to respond to this report within 56 days of the date of this report,
namely by 9" March 2018. |, the coroner, may extend the period.

Your response must contain details of action taken or proposed to be taken, setting out
the timetable for action. Otherwise you must explain why no action is proposed.

COPIES and PUBLICATION

| have sent a copy of my report to the Chief Coroner and to the following Interested
Persons namely Cousin of the deceased, who may find it useful or of
interest.

| am also under a duty to send the Chief Coroner a copy of your response.

The Chief Coroner may publish either or both in a complete or redacted or summary
form. He may send a copy of this report to any person who he believes may find it useful
or of interest. You may make representations to me, the coroner, at the time of your
response, about the release or the publication of your response by the Chief Coroner.

Alison Mutch OBE
HM Senior Coroner
12/01/2018

nN

Responses

1 response published against this report on judiciary.uk. A response is a body's written reply to the coroner's concerns; publication is at the discretion of the Chief Coroner's office, so an absent response does not mean nobody replied.

Response from Hm Prison and Probation Services (PDF)
ae

HM Prison &
Probation Service

RECEIVED
09 FEB 2016
CK

National Probation Service

Business Strategy and Change
Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service

fi 8" Floor
Ms Alison Mutch OBE 102, Petty France
HM Senior Coroner London
Coroner's Court SW1H 9AJ
1 Mount Tabor Street
Stockport
SK1 3AG

mailto: coroners. office@stoeckport.gov.uk

Des Cormner \

Thank you for your Regulation 28 report, dated 12 January, which was sent to Colin Allars, Director of
Probation, following the inquest into the death of Christopher Stewart Hutton. Mr Allars has now
moved to a new post. His replacement as Director of Probation is Ms Sonia Crozier, who has asked
me to reply.

We are grateful for your comments and recommendation for improvement. You are concerned that
the sex offender treatment programme that Christopher Hutton was to undertake had not yet
commenced at the time of his death. You will be aware that there has been a significant increase in
the number of persons convicted of sexual offences: this has resulted in increased demand for sex
offender treatment programmes. To address this high demand, work is in progress nationally to
increase the number of staff delivering sex offender group work. In the North West, the staff profile is
increasing from 23 facilitators to 35. (These are full time equivalents: some of the new staff will also
have offender management responsibilities as part of their role.) We envisage that the 11 new
facilitators who are currently being trained will be in post by June 2018. A further 10 staff will then be
trained and in post by the end of 2018. In addition, the North West Division is undertaking a scoping
exercise for a central referral system to streamline the allocation process.

| hope that the measures | have described above provide the assurance you are seeking of the
National Probation Service's commitment to addressing the issue you identified in your report.

Tin seus,
ree Wn

RICHARD HUGHES
Head of Governance & Strategy

1 February 2018

Related reports

Other reports by Alison Mutch

See all →

More reports categorised “Other related deaths”

See all →

Track Alison Mutch

See every Prevention of Future Deaths report matching Alison Mutch, and how often a new one appears.

What would an alert for this have sent me? Search the full text

Free to try — the preview shows the real matches and how many arrived in the last 12 months. Your first email alert is free.

These reports are published by the Chief Coroner's office at judiciary.uk and are © Crown copyright. The text here is reproduced from the published PDF so it can be searched. If something on this page is wrong, or you are a person named in it and want it reviewed, email drcjar@gmail.com and we will act promptly.