Family wasn't told of inmate's cancer

Report into prisoner's death criticises ‘inadequate' care

- NEAL KEELING

PRISON bosses failed to tell the family of an inmate that he was seriously ill in hospital and had prostate cancer.

The man's relatives only found out by chance three weeks later when they arrived at Strangeways to visit Lenford Lloyd White and he was not there.

The prison and Forest Bank jail in Agecroft, Salford, are both criticised in a report by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman into White's death. It concludes that the clinical care he got while in prison was inadequate.

White died in hospital, aged 65, on March 19, 2020 of small intestine failure, while a prisoner at HMP Manchester.

This was caused by surgical complications for the treatment of an inflammation of the lining of the abdominal wall. He also had prostate cancer and heart disease, which did not cause but contributed to his death.

He was jailed after he plied a teenage girl with drugs before forcing her to have sex. He was found guilty of three counts of sexual activity with a child at Manchester Crown Court.

In her report, Sue McAllister says a clinical reviewer who helped her investigate the death found that the clinical care White received at HMP Manchester was "not equivalent to that which he could have expected to receive in the community."

She adds: "I am concerned that Mr White's missed hospital urology appointment just before he went to prison was not identified when he arrived at HMP Forest Bank, nor when he later transferred to HMP Manchester.

"I am also concerned that staff at Manchester did not notify Mr White's next of kin when he became seriously ill and was admitted to hospital in August 2019."