Crime

Violence in Welsh prisons blamed on staff shortages, drugs and neglect

Published

2 months ago

October 9, 2025

Inspectors warn of rising assaults as inmates spend longer locked in cells with little rehabilitation

VIOLENCE across Welsh prisons has reached crisis levels, with assaults between prisoners and attacks on staff soaring amid chronic staff shortages, rampant drug use and long lock-up hours.

A growing body of evidence, including Ministry of Justice data, inspection findings and independent research, paints a picture of a prison system buckling under pressure. In some institutions, assaults have more than doubled in five years, with serious injuries becoming alarmingly routine.

At HMP Cardiff, assaults on staff rose from 20 in 2022/23 to 52 last year – a 160 per cent increase. The prison also recorded 168 prisoner-on-prisoner attacks, up 42 per cent in five years. Across Wales, the picture is much the same, as overcrowding, poor rehabilitation and undertrained officers drive a spiral of violence and despair.

A system on the brink

Figures show that prisoner-on-prisoner assaults across Welsh prisons rose 80 per cent in 2023, while assaults on staff rose 69 per cent. Self-harm incidents are up more than half, and deaths in custody have risen steeply, particularly in prisons where drug use is rife.

The causes are interlinked: inexperience, understaffing, mental health decline, drugs, debt and boredom. Overcrowded jails and endless hours behind locked doors are fuelling frustration and aggression.

A senior officer told The Herald: “When a prisoner owes money for drugs, it doesn’t just disappear – it ends in a beating, a stabbing, or worse. The gangs run the wings because there aren’t enough experienced officers to control them.”

Drugs, debt and retribution

Synthetic drugs such as Spice are flooding prisons across Wales. Drones and corrupt smuggling routes are feeding a thriving black market, and prisoners are racking up debts they cannot pay. Violence is often the result.

At HMP Parc in Bridgend, inspectors found that 57 per cent of prisoners said it was easy to get drugs. In one year there were nearly 900 drug finds, and the number of drug-related deaths rose dramatically. Prisoners described days locked up for 21 hours, with no meaningful activity and little food.

Drugs create their own power structures inside the walls. Those who control supply control the prison, while those in debt are left vulnerable to beatings, extortion and retribution.

Parc Prison’s shocking decline

***Parc Prison (Image: Herald archive)***

Once considered one of the UK’s better-run prisons, Parc has become a byword for crisis. Inspectors recorded 722 assaults in the 12 months before their 2025 visit – 110 of them serious – representing a 60 per cent rise since the previous inspection.

Seventeen inmates died there in one year, 12 of them in just six months. Violence, drugs and self-harm have soared. The inspection concluded that Parc had “declined significantly” and was now “too violent, too drug-ridden and too unstable.”

The prison is operated by private firm G4S, and critics say profit motives have made matters worse. Staff turnover is high, morale is low, and rehabilitation programmes have withered. Former prisoners describe a chaotic regime: “You’re either locked up, off your head, or fighting over debt. The staff just shut the doors and hope it blows over.”

Cardiff: overcrowding and rising assaults

Cardiff, a local Victorian prison in the Adamsdown area, has not escaped the violence. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that prisoner-on-prisoner assaults have risen by 42 per cent in five years, reaching 168 in 2024/25.

Assaults on staff more than doubled between 2022/23 and 2024/25, from 20 to 52 – a 160 per cent increase.

The most recent inspection found that almost two-thirds of prisoners were sharing single cells, with many locked up for long periods. Nearly half said drugs were easy to get, and self-harm incidents rose by a third in 2023 alone.

Despite strong leadership and generally good relationships between staff and prisoners, the report described a “pressured and overcrowded” establishment. Cardiff had ten suicides since 2019 and remains among the most stretched prisons in Wales.

Patrick Mallon, a solicitor at JF Law, said: “The alarming year-on-year rise in assaults in UK prisons is a stark reflection of a system under immense strain. With populations growing and so many prisons officially overcrowded, the Ministry of Justice is facing a crisis where violence becomes increasingly common.”

Swansea: safer but under strain

***Inside Cardiff Prison (Image: HMPS)***

HMP Swansea remains an exception – for now. The latest inspection found just 34 prisoner-on-prisoner assaults in a year, and violence against staff described as “among the lowest of all reception prisons.”

However, inspectors warned that the prison’s relative calm depended on stable staffing and leadership. Work and education spaces were limited, leaving many prisoners idle. With overcrowding rising elsewhere, there are fears Swansea could follow the same pattern as Parc and Cardiff if staffing levels fall.

Overcrowding and long lock-ups

The Welsh prison population has grown steadily for three decades, mirroring the national trend. Across England and Wales there are now more than 88,000 inmates – double the number held in 1994 – yet the number of uniformed officers has barely increased.

Many prisoners spend more than 20 hours a day locked in their cells. With little access to work, training or exercise, frustration boils over. In an already volatile environment, small disputes escalate into violence.

Long hours alone also take a toll on mental health. Self-harm incidents across Wales rose 53 per cent in 2023, and inspectors report growing numbers of prisoners on suicide prevention measures.

Private profit and public cost

Campaigners argue that the private operation of Parc has exposed the risks of running prisons for profit. With cost pressures and high staff turnover, safety and rehabilitation often fall by the wayside.

A spokesperson for the Prison Officers’ Association said: “You can’t run safe prisons on minimum wage and profit margins. Officers are undertrained, overworked and terrified. It’s a ticking time bomb.”

A broken duty of care

Under law, prison authorities have a duty of care to protect those in custody and to provide a safe working environment for staff. Where that duty is breached, both prisoners and officers have the right to seek compensation for physical or psychological harm.

But campaigners say litigation should not be the only route to accountability. The system itself needs reform.

Legal Expert’s analysis points out that for every ten extra prisoners per thousand, assaults on staff rise by 1.5 and prisoner-on-prisoner assaults by one. The conclusion is stark: violence is built into overcrowding.

Calls for reform

Experts and unions are united in calling for reform. They say the government’s £40 million “Plan for Change,” which promises 14,000 new prison places by 2031, will not be enough without investment in staff training, rehabilitation and mental health care.

Proposed solutions include better pay and retention schemes for officers, more purposeful activity for inmates, and tighter control of contraband. Independent monitoring boards have also urged greater transparency and tougher oversight of private contracts.

The human cost

Behind the statistics are broken people – inmates and officers alike. Many of those injured will never fully recover, and each death in custody represents a failure of care.

Families of those who died at Parc and Cardiff say they were failed by a system that could not keep their loved ones safe. Officers speak of colleagues assaulted or traumatised beyond repair.

Until the root causes – drugs, debt, understaffing and neglect – are tackled head-on, violence will continue to define life inside Welsh prisons. The cost is measured not only in bruises and broken bones, but in trust, safety and human dignity.

Crime

Pembroke rape investigation dropped – one suspect now facing deportation

Published

11 hours ago

December 3, 2025

Tom Sinclair

DYFED-POWYS POLICE have closed an investigation into an alleged rape and false imprisonment in Pembroke after deciding to take no further action. One of the two men originally arrested is now in immigration detention and faces deportation.

The incident took place on Main Street over the weekend of 8–9 November 2025. Police were called at 9:45am on Sunday 9 November after reports of a woman in distress. She was taken to hospital for treatment.

Two men – aged 36 and 27 – were arrested at the scene on suspicion of rape and false imprisonment. They were subsequently released on bail while enquiries continued.

On Tuesday (2 December 2025), the force announced the criminal investigation has concluded and no charges will be brought. A police spokesperson said the decision took full account of the victim’s wishes.

Outcome for the two suspects:

The 36-year-old man has been transferred to the custody of the Home Office Immigration Enforcement team and is now detained pending deportation.
The 27-year-old man has been released with no further police action.

A Dyfed-Powys Police statement read: “This investigation was not terrorism-related, and we have no knowledge of any linked incident in Monkton. All rumours suggesting otherwise are incorrect.”

The force has also dismissed separate community speculation that the men entered the UK illegally on fraudulent passports or were due in court this week on terrorism charges.

Detectives stressed that every report of rape or serious sexual assault is treated seriously and victims are supported throughout. Anyone affected has been directed to specialist services, details of which are available on the force website.

No further police updates are expected.

Crime

Defendant denies using Sudocrem-covered finger to assault two-month-old baby

Published

1 day ago

December 2, 2025

Tom Sinclair

In dramatic day-long cross-examination, Christopher Phillips repeatedly denies sexual penetration, as prosecution alleges escalating anal attacks ended in catastrophic injury

CHRISTOPHER PHILLIPS, 28, spent almost six hours in the witness box today. During the entire afternoon he underwent a sustained and highly graphic cross-examination by prosecuting counsel Caroline Rees KC.

The defendant is accused of cruelty and multiple sexual assaults on his then-girlfriend’s two-month-old son between December 2020 and January 2021, culminating in life-threatening anal injuries discovered when the child was rushed to hospital on 24 January 2021. The baby’s mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is jointly charged with causing or allowing serious physical harm.

Both defendants plead not guilty.

Ms Rees KC opened the day by telling Phillips that the prosecution case was that he had developed a sexual interest in penetrating the baby anally and had used his finger, coated with Sudocrem, to do so on a number of occasions before finally causing the “catastrophic” tearing injury seen in the medical photographs.

***Artist’s impression of Christopher Phillips giving evidence at Swansea Crown Court***

Sudocrem and the mechanics of nappy changing

The prosecutor took Phillips step-by-step through his own description of how he applied Sudocrem: Ms Rees: “You would put a blob of Sudocrem on one finger, then use another finger to smear it around the nappy area?” Phillips: “Yes.” Ms Rees: “So your finger was covered in Sudocrem?” Phillips: “Yes.” Ms Rees: “And you accept you sometimes changed the baby completely alone?” Phillips: “Yes, occasionally.” Ms Rees: “You are extremely experienced with anal sex. You know that the first thing you do is use a lubricated finger to relax and open the sphincter before anything larger is introduced?” Phillips: “With consenting adults, yes.” Ms Rees: “Precisely. And that is exactly what you did to this baby with your Sudocrem-covered finger on more than one occasion, wasn’t it?” Phillips: “No. Never. Absolutely not.”

The alleged progression of assaults

Ms Rees put it to Phillips that the bright red blood he first noticed in the nappy around 12 January 2021, the further bleeding he photographed and sent to the mother on the night of 23 January, and the eventual massive tear and prolapse discovered hours later formed a clear escalation. “You were testing the water,” Ms Rees said. “First a little bleeding, then a bit more, and finally you went too far and caused the terrible injury the jury have seen.” Phillips repeatedly insisted the blood was caused by constipation and a haemorrhoid he had personally identified.

The baby’s rattle

Returning to the incident in which Phillips pressed the baby’s rattle against his own anus as a joke, Ms Rees said: “You have a highly trained eye for objects that can be used anally, don’t you, Mr Phillips? Within a split second you saw that rattle and thought ‘sex toy’.” Phillips replied: “It was a stupid, throw-away moment of jocularity. I didn’t insert it.”

Deletion of material from his phone

Within 48–72 hours of the baby being admitted to hospital in a life-threatening condition, Phillips wiped large quantities of sexual photographs, videos and internet search history from his device. Ms Rees: “You realised the game was up and you frantically deleted anything that showed your sexual interests, didn’t you?” Phillips: “I deleted adult material involving [the mother] because I was embarrassed. There was never anything involving the baby to delete.”

The final night – 23/24 January 2021

Cell-site records show Phillips arrived at the flat around 18:30 and did not leave until 02:57. He accepts he changed the baby’s nappy three times that night, including once around 22:17 when he photographed fresh blood and sent it to the mother who was in the next room. Ms Rees put it to him that shortly before he left he carried out the most serious assault, causing the full-thickness tear and prolapse, then “calmly walked out knowing the child was catastrophically injured”. Phillips answered: “When I left he was quiet and settled in [the mother’s] arms.”

Closing accusation

At the end of the afternoon, Caroline Rees KC rose and addressed the defendant directly: “Mr Phillips, over a period of weeks you sexually assaulted this two-month-old baby with your finger on multiple occasions. On the final night you penetrated [Baby C] so violently that you caused the devastating injuries shown in the photographs the jury have seen. That is the truth, isn’t it?” Phillips turned to face the jury and replied firmly and clearly: “No. I did not. I have never touched that baby sexually or harmed [the baby] in any way whatsoever.”

Caroline Rees KC indicated she still has further questions. Cross-examination will resume tomorrow morning before His Honour Judge Paul Thomas KC.

Crime

Probation claims ‘not fair’, says solicitor as defendant jailed for hammer offence

Published

1 day ago

December 2, 2025

Sarah Jane Absalom

Defence challenges report accusing Milford man of refusing to comply with community order

CLAIMS by the probation service that a defendant had refused to comply with community order requirements were strongly refuted by a defence solicitor when the case came before Haverfordwest magistrates this week.

Representing Josh Skipper, solicitor Tom Lloyd criticised what he described as a catalogue of inaccuracies in a probation report that recommended an immediate custodial sentence.

The report alleged that Skipper had:

REFUSED to comply with his community order;
was UNMOTIVATED to seek employment;
had no ACTIVE SKILLS or activity preferences; and
was not EASY to engage with.

But Mr Lloyd told the court these assertions were “simply not fair”.

“The report isn’t helpful in setting out the defendant’s background,” he said. “It’s just not fair.”

He told magistrates that Skipper had made repeated attempts to secure work in recent weeks, but had been unsuccessful. He added that the report criticised Skipper for having no skills or activities but offered no constructive recommendations such as unpaid work.

“It says he isn’t an easy person to engage with, but this is someone who was brought up in care from the age of 13 or 14,” Mr Lloyd said.

Skipper, 24, of Chestnut Way, Milford Haven, was before the court for sentence after pleading guilty to possessing an offensive weapon — a hammer — in a public place, namely Victoria Road, Milford Haven, on November 9.

Mr Lloyd accepted the offence crossed the custody threshold but urged magistrates to impose a suspended sentence.

“He understands it isn’t up to him to pick and choose what requirements they want of him,” he said. “But rather than be given a custodial sentence, his sentence should be suspended.”

Magistrates rejected the request, citing Skipper’s repeated offending and his lack of compliance with previous community orders.

Skipper was sentenced to 26 weeks in custody and ordered to pay a £154 surcharge and £85 costs. A forfeiture and destruction order was made for the hammer.