One death is linked to HMP Parc, one post-release from HMP Cardiff

TWO more deaths connected to Welsh prisons have been confirmed by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO), adding to what campaigners describe as a deepening crisis across the prison system in Wales.

The PPO has opened an investigation into the death of Kenneth Male, born 12 December 1957, who died on 22 November 2025 while serving his sentence at HMP/YOI Parc in Bridgend. The case appears in the Ombudsman’s official listings with the investigation currently marked as in progress.

Campaigners say his death is the 40th linked to Parc since 2022.

In a post shared widely on social media, campaign spokesman Zackery Lee Griffiths described the number of deaths as “the highest at any prison in England and Wales since 2022”, adding that bereaved families “could have been spared months or even years of grief if action had been taken earlier”.

A second new case has also been listed by the Ombudsman. Scott Price, born 12 February 1996, died on 13 November 2025, shortly after his release from HMP Cardiff. His death is categorised as post-release, with the PPO investigation also ongoing.

Both deaths will be subject to full independent investigations, which will examine the circumstances leading up to each case, the care provided, and any wider systemic issues.

Background: growing scrutiny of Welsh prison safety

The Herald has been reporting extensively on conditions at HMP Parc, including allegations of drug use, violence, failures in safeguarding, and patterns of deaths linked to synthetic drugs and medical emergencies.
Concerns have been raised repeatedly in the Senedd, with Welsh ministers and several MSs calling for urgent intervention and a full review of G4S’s running of the Bridgend facility.

The UK Government, which oversees justice and prisons in Wales, has so far resisted calls for removing the contract from G4S.

Campaigners say the latest death strengthens the case for major reform.

What happens next

The PPO will now conduct two independent investigations, with reports expected to be published publicly once completed. The Herald will continue to follow developments.

Judge says defendant’s mental health “needs sorting out”

A MILFORD HAVEN woman who stabbed her partner in the back and bicep walked straight into Haverfordwest Police Station and told officers: “I stabbed my ex-partner earlier.”

Amy Woolston, 22, entered the station at around 8:00pm on June 13 and openly confessed to the attack, Swansea Crown Court heard this week. She later pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding and has now been jailed for 12 months.

‘He’s alright – he let me walk off’

Prosecutor Tom Scapens said Woolston told officers she and the victim had both taken acid earlier in the day and that she reacted after “feeling stab marks in her back”.

Police went to the victim’s home to check on his welfare. Although he was not there initially, he returned soon afterwards. Officers noted he was sober and not under the influence of any substance.

Asked what had happened, he replied: “Just a couple of things,” before gesturing to his back. He had three puncture or stab wounds to his back and a further wound to his bicep.

He told officers that Woolston had been “a bit shifty” when he returned from the shop before grabbing either a knife or a shard of glass from a windowsill and stabbing him. He refused medical treatment and added he had “had worse from her before”, confirming he did not support any prosecution.

Twenty previous convictions

Woolston, of Dartmouth Street, Milford Haven, has 20 previous convictions from 10 court appearances, including several for battery and assaults on emergency workers.

Mitigating, Dyfed Thomas said Woolston has long-standing mental health issues and had stopped taking prescribed medication for paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the incident. She was now medicated, remorseful, and engaging with support.

Judge: ‘Nobody knows what the outcome will be’

Sentencing her, Judge Geraint Walters said: “Whilst having an episode, no doubt, you stabbed your partner – something he adopted a rather blasé approach to. We need to sort out your problems. You taking a knife to somebody – you or somebody else – nobody knows what the outcome will be.”

Woolston was handed a 12-month prison sentence. As she had already served the equivalent time on remand, she was told she would be released imminently.

Judge Walters said a 12-month licence period would be “more helpful” to her going forward.

Church in Wales facing scrutiny over long-held report not given to police for more than a decade

A LEAKED handwritten report has revealed that former Church in Wales bishop Anthony Pierce allegedly admitted sexually assaulting a teenage boy while he was still a parish priest – years before he was appointed Bishop of Swansea and Brecon.

Pierce, now eighty-four, is currently serving a four-year prison sentence handed down earlier this year for separate historic indecent assaults on another boy. The newly disclosed document, seen by the BBC, claims he confessed to what the report’s author described as a “criminal act” involving a fifteen-year-old.

The report, around twenty-five pages long, was written in early 1999, only months before Pierce was elevated to bishop. It was kept within the Church in Wales for eleven years before finally being handed to police in 2010, two years after Pierce stepped down. By that time, the alleged victim – referred to as Dean – had died.

Allegation raised twice before Pierce became bishop

According to lawyers acting for Dean’s family, his mother first raised concerns in 1993, making a formal complaint to the then Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, the Rt Rev Dewi Bridges. The leaked report states that it was after this complaint that Pierce admitted the incident to its author, who was a personal friend rather than an official investigator.

Dean’s mother raised the allegation again in January 1999, only weeks before the report was written and shortly before Pierce was chosen to succeed Bishop Bridges. Despite those warnings, there is no record of Pierce being disciplined.

Church officials say the document was not commissioned by them and will be examined fully as part of an ongoing review into how allegations were handled.

Derogatory comments about the victim

Lawyers for the family say the report paints a deeply unfair picture of Dean and appears designed to protect Pierce’s reputation. The document focuses heavily on the teenager’s personality and sexuality and describes him in disparaging terms. It suggests Pierce, then in his late forties, was “naive”, “confused” and somehow unable to resist the attention of a fifteen-year-old boy.

The report states that Pierce felt “intensely guilty” about what happened and feared losing his ministry if his behaviour became public. It also includes comments about how Dean had “broken through” Pierce’s emotional “barriers”.

A solicitor representing the family, David Greenwood, said the contents of the report had caused “immense distress”. He said similar attempts to discredit complainants were common in historic child abuse cases.

“It appears designed to undermine Dean’s credibility and discourage any further investigation,” he said. “It raises serious questions about whether individuals within the church were seeking to protect Pierce rather than the child.”

Church’s actions under renewed scrutiny

The Church in Wales said it passed the material to police again in 2016 as part of its submissions to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

A previous BBC investigation found that concerns about Pierce had reached senior clergy as early as the mid-1980s, although the church has no record of formal action being taken at the time.

In correspondence released to the BBC, one church employee said the report “should never have been written” using “highly confidential information” and “certainly should not have formed part of any decision-making process”.

Pierce declined to comment when contacted in prison.

The Church in Wales review into how Dean’s allegation was handled is expected to be published in the new year. Pierce is currently serving a sentence of four years and one month after admitting five counts of indecent assault against another child between 1985 and 1990.