Irvine Times | News | CHILD ABUSE ACCUSED'S CELL SUICIDE

Friday, 21st November, 2008

Published: Wednesday, 21st May, 2008 11:00

CHILD ABUSE ACCUSED'S CELL SUICIDE

By court reporter

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A PRISONER accused of child sex abuse hanged himself with cable given to him by staff, a court heard this week.

Stewart McBlain, 67, was on voluntary “double protection” and only left his cell when other inmates at Kilmarnock Prison were locked up in theirs.

Two days after being remanded in custody he was found hanged with a ligature made from shoe laces and cable supplied for his TV aerial.

He had been charged with abusing two girls aged seven and eight when the alleged attacks began at an address in Caldon Road, Irvine.

Mr McBlain had appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on two charges of lewd and libidinous behaviour and one charge of unlawful sexual conduct towards a minor. The offences were said to have taken place between 1993 and 2002.

Prison officer John Fleming told a fatal accident inquiry Mr McBlain’s file showed he had been charged with a serious sexual offence and needed to be protected.

He was put in the protection wing and given a two-man cell to himself as the jail was not full at the time.

Mr Fleming, who was supervising the wing night shift on December 10, said part of the makeshift noose, made from shoe laces and electrical cable, was still hanging from the toilet door.

Jason Bell, depute fiscal, asked: “Where would that cable have come from?” Mr Fleming replied: “From an officer,” adding it was to receive a signal for the TV and was not an unusual item to have in a cell.

The prisoner was assessed as not being at risk of suicide or self harm.

Mr McBlain, of Walker Avenue, Troon, had been assessed by nursing and medical staff and was not considered at risk of suicide or self-harm, the inquiry at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard.

Another officer said he saw a prisoner peer through Mr McBlain’s hatch before screaming “The guy’s hanging.”

Sheriff Colin McKay returned a formal detemination that Mr McBlain had taken his own life, adding there was no evidence the prison authorities contributed towards nor could have prevented the death.