Crime

Leaked messages point to leadership crisis at HMP Parc

Published

8 months ago

April 2, 2025

Staff mocked suicide and bragged about assaults as G4S failed to intervene

A CULTURE of violence, cruelty and neglect flourished unchecked at HMP Parc — which houses many prisoners from Pembrokeshire — while prison leadership appeared to look the other way, a cache of leaked messages obtained by The Herald suggests.

The explosive text and social media messages — exchanged between serving and former officers at the privately-run Bridgend jail — reveal not only a disturbing level of misconduct among some frontline staff, but a prison seemingly adrift, without effective oversight or internal accountability.

Officers joked about suicide attempts, bragged about violent assaults, and casually described provoking vulnerable inmates into confrontation — all in the open, with no reference to line managers, disciplinary consequences, or intervention from senior staff.

In one message, an officer writes: “Let’s push him to go tomorrow so we can drop him.” Another adds: “They smashed him into the shower lol,” with a colleague replying: “Good! I hope they hurt him too.”

In a separate conversation, a prisoner who had slit his wrists is described as “daft” and someone who should be sent “to a f lonnie bin.” One officer joked: “He’ll tie a bag around his neck,” followed by: “Too much paperwork,” and “Don’t have to do paperwork if you pretend not to see it.”

***Parc Prison, Bridgend (Pic: Herald)***

No fear of consequences

The messages, some of which were shared on social media last summer, contain no suggestion that those involved feared being caught or disciplined. In fact, the tone throughout is brazen, boastful and often gleeful — pointing to what campaigners now describe as a complete failure of leadership inside the prison.

“There’s no mention of superiors, no sense that anyone was trying to stop this,” one prison reform advocate told The Herald. “That tells you everything you need to know about the culture at the top.”

The Herald was the first to report on the leaked messages, which have since been seen by national media including the BBC, PA and The Independent. Their contents have now become part of an ongoing criminal investigation by South Wales Police.

Ten officers arrested — but no managers held accountable

Since September 2024, ten officers at HMP Parc have been arrested on suspicion of assault and misconduct in public office.

Four arrests were made on 20 September 2024, but all four individuals were later released without charge. In January 2025, six more officers were detained, with five bailed until the end of April and one released under investigation.

South Wales Police told The Herald: “The investigation remains ongoing, and officers are continuing to work closely with G4S.”

Despite the scale of the investigation, no senior managers or governors at the prison have been suspended, dismissed, or formally investigated. G4S has confirmed that three of the officers arrested in the first phase have been dismissed, and a fourth remains suspended pending disciplinary action.

Campaigners say that is not enough.

“If this level of abuse was happening openly among officers, leadership either knew and did nothing, or they were completely unaware of the day-to-day culture inside their own prison,” one former prison inspector said. “Either way, it’s a failure.”

Seventeen deaths in one year

The crisis at Parc has unfolded against a grim backdrop: seventeen inmates died in the prison during 2024, making it the deadliest prison in the UK that year.

In a letter to the House of Lords’ Justice and Home Affairs Committee in October, Prisons Minister James Timpson confirmed that the Ministry of Justice’s anti-corruption unit is actively investigating the facility.

In December, MPs were told that organised criminal gangs were smuggling drugs and weapons into Parc via children’s nappies and industrial drones. A riot in 2023 led to the replacement of the prison’s director by mutual agreement, with new leadership installed — but problems appear to have persisted.

“Catastrophic safeguarding failure”

In March 2025, The Herald reported on a separate police investigation into the alleged sexual assault of a vulnerable young inmate on X1 Wing. The victim, aged 18–19, was reportedly scalded with boiling water and forced to perform a sexual act at knifepoint by a known high-risk offender.

Campaigners questioned how the attacker — flagged in his OASys risk assessment as dangerous and premeditated — was allowed to share a cell with a vulnerable young prisoner.

Zack Griffiths, of the HMP Prisons Justice Group, said: “A vulnerable young person was left exposed to a violent, dangerous offender, and the consequences have been devastating. This isn’t just an individual crime — it’s a catastrophic failure of the prison system to safeguard those in its care.”

G4S response and silence from above

In a statement, a spokesperson for G4S said: “We are absolutely committed to rooting out any wrongdoing. Of the four individuals who were arrested and released without charge by South Wales Police, three have been dismissed from the company and one remains suspended pending the outcome of a disciplinary process.
Our staff are expected to treat everyone with dignity and respect and we have a zero-tolerance approach to dealing with any staff behaviour that falls short of our standards. The vast majority of our staff are hardworking and honest.”

The Prison Reform Trust declined to provide an on-the-record statement, but confirmed they have been hearing concerns from prisoners at HMP Parc and offered to speak off the record about broader issues within the prison system.

Calls grow for independent inquiry

With police investigations continuing, no charges brought, and no senior leadership held publicly accountable, calls are growing for a fully independent public inquiry into how HMP Parc has been run — and how such a corrosive environment was allowed to take hold.

“This isn’t just about a few bad officers,” one whistleblower said. “This is a broken culture, and it starts at the top.”

Parc, the largest prison in Wales, remains one of the few in the UK run by a private contractor. For families of those who died behind its walls, and for the growing number of victims still inside, answers cannot come soon enough.

Crime

Man accused of Milford Haven burglary and GBH remanded to Crown Court

Published

40 minutes ago

December 5, 2025

Court Reporter

A MILFORD HAVEN man has appeared in court charged with burglary and inflicting grievous bodily harm, following an incident at a flat in the town earlier this week.

Charged after alleged attack inside Victoria Road flat

Stephen Collier, aged thirty-eight, of Vaynor Road, Milford Haven, appeared before Llanelli Magistrates’ Court today (Friday, Dec 5). Collier is accused of entering a property known as Nos Da Flat, 2 Victoria Road, on December 3 and, while inside, inflicting grievous bodily harm on a man named John Hilton.

The court was told the alleged burglary and assault was carried out jointly with another man, Denis Chmelevski.

The charge is brought under section 9(1)(b) of the Theft Act 1968, which covers burglary where violence is inflicted on a person inside the property.

No plea entered

Collier, represented by defence solicitor Chris White, did not enter a plea during the hearing. Prosecutor Simone Walsh applied for the defendant to be remanded in custody, citing the serious nature of the offence, the risk of further offending, and concerns that he could interfere with witnesses.

Magistrates Mr I Howells, Mr V Brickley and Mrs H Meade agreed, refusing bail and ordering that Collier be kept in custody before trial.

Case sent to Swansea Crown Court

The case was sent to Swansea Crown Court under Section 51 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Collier will next appear on January 5, 2026 at 9:00am for a Plea and Trial Preparation Hearing.

A custody time limit has been set for June 5, 2026.

Chmelevski is expected to face proceedings separately.

Crime

Prosecution delivers powerful closing speech in Christopher Phillips trial

Published

5 hours ago

December 5, 2025

Tom Sinclair

Jury expected to retire shortly in Swansea Crown Court baby abuse case

THE TRIAL of Christopher Phillips, accused of inflicting catastrophic injuries on a 10-week-old baby in Haverfordwest, moved into its final stages today (Dec 5) as the last evidence was heard and the prosecution delivered a forceful closing speech at Swansea Crown Court.

***Christopher Phillips: Told the court earlier this week that he was “proud” of his appearance.***

Phillips, 34, of Kiln Park in Burton, is charged with causing serious physical and sexual harm to Baby C in January 2021. The infant was taken by ambulance to Glangwili Hospital in the early hours of January 24 after suffering life-threatening internal injuries.

The baby’s mother faces separate charges of allowing serious physical harm and child cruelty for allegedly failing to protect her child.

Final evidence presented

The court resumed at 11:09am, when the prosecution submitted its final exhibit: a detailed timeline reconstructed from Phillips’ mobile phone data, charting his visits to the mother’s flat in Haverfordwest.

Prosecutor Caroline Rees KC highlighted the distances between Phillips’ home, the mother’s address and Glangwili Hospital, telling the jury that the timings were central to understanding the sequence of events that night.

This concluded the evidential phase of the trial.

Judge issues legal directions

Late this morning (Friday, Dec 5) Judge Paul Thomas KC delivered his directions to the jury, outlining the legal tests required for convictions against both Phillips and the child’s mother. He reminded jurors to consider each charge separately and to apply the law only to the evidence they had heard.

Prosecution closing speech

In her closing address at early this afternoon, Rees KC told the jury that 10-week-old Baby C had been a “happy little baby” who showed “no signs of distress” in a video recorded by his father on January 23, 2021.

She said that within hours, by the early morning of January 24, the infant was in hospital with what she described as a “gaping tear in his anus”.

Rees KC argued that the evidence of who caused the injuries “points in one way – towards Christopher Phillips”.

Turning to the baby’s mother, she said the prosecution’s case was that she was “not without blame”, telling the jury that the mother had “failed in her duty to keep her baby safe”.

“She at the very least ought to have realised that her baby was at serious risk from the man she brought into her home,” Rees KC said. “She didn’t take any steps to keep that baby safe. She prioritised Christopher Phillips over her own child.”

Jury expected to retire

No defence closing speech was delivered today, that will be on Monday.

No further evidence is scheduled.

The jury is expected to retire early next week to begin its deliberations.

The case continues at Swansea Crown Court.

Crime

Swansea man dies weeks after release from troubled HMP Parc: Investigation launched

Published

18 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Tom Sinclair

A SWANSEA man has died just weeks after being released from HMP Parc, the Bridgend prison now at the centre of a national crisis over inmate deaths and post-release failures.

Darren Thomas, aged 52, died on 13 November 2025 — less than a month after leaving custody. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) has confirmed an independent investigation into his death, which is currently listed as “in progress”.

Born on 9 April 1973, Mr Thomas had been under post-release supervision following a period at HMP/YOI Parc, the G4S-run prison that recorded seventeen deaths in custody in 2024 — the highest in the UK.

His last known legal appearance was at Swansea Crown Court in October 2024, where he stood trial accused of making a threatening phone call and two counts of criminal damage. During the hearing, reported by The Pembrokeshire Herald at the time, the court heard he made threats during a heated call on 5 October 2023.

Mr Thomas denied the allegations but was found guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to a custodial term, which led to his imprisonment at HMP Parc.

Parc: A prison in breakdown

HMP Parc has faced sustained criticism throughout 2024 and 2025. A damning unannounced inspection in January found:

Severe self-harm incidents up 190%
Violence against staff up 109%
Synthetic drugs “easily accessible” across wings
Overcrowding at 108% capacity

In the first three months of 2024 alone, ten men died at Parc — part of a wider cluster of twenty PPO-investigated deaths since 2022. Six occurred within three weeks, all linked to synthetic drug use.

Leaked staff messages in 2025 exposed a culture of indifference, including one officer writing: “Let’s push him to go tomorrow so we can drop him.”

Six G4S employees have been arrested since 2023 in connection with alleged assaults and misconduct.

The danger after release

Deaths shortly after release from custody are a growing national concern. Ministry of Justice data shows 620 people died while under community supervision in 2024–2025, with 62 deaths occurring within 14 days of release.

Short sentences — common at Parc — leave little time for effective rehabilitation or release planning. Homelessness, loss of drug tolerance and untreated mental-health conditions create a high-risk environment for those newly released.

The PPO investigates all such deaths to determine whether prisons or probation failed in their duties. Reports often take 6–12 months and can lead to recommendations.

A system at breaking point

The crisis at Parc reflects wider failures across UK prisons and probation. A July 2025 House of Lords report described the service as “not fit for purpose”. More than 500 people die in custody annually, with campaigners warning that private prisons such as Parc prioritise cost-cutting over care.

The PPO investigation into the death of Darren Thomas continues.