Paedophile died in prison after 'unacceptable' dementia care

A PAEDOPHILE died while serving a 16-year jail term for sexually abusing three girls.

- CONOR GOGARTY

The prisons ombudsman has released a scathing report into Frederick Heard’s death at Bridgend’s Parc prison, finding the standard of his dementia care was “completely unacceptable”.

The ombudsman report has been significantly delayed, coming almost six years after the 87-year-old’s death from pneumonia in August 2019.

Heard, from Ringland in Newport, had been sentenced in 2012 after a Cardiff Crown Court jury found him guilty of five indecent assaults, six counts of indecency with a child, attempted rape, and two other sexual offences. The crimes spanned more than 30 years up to the mid-1990s.

Ombudsman Sue McAllister wrote that a few years into Heard’s imprisonment it became clear he “had no idea that he was serving a sentence in prison and that being locked in a cell caused him mental distress and physical injury.