News

Senedd Covid-19 committee branded ‘not fit for any purpose’ by bereaved families

Published

2 years ago

February 7, 2024

BEREAVED families have described a Senedd Covid-19 committee as “not fit for any purpose” amid concerns about duplication and a lack of engagement.

The Wales Covid-19 Inquiry Special Purpose Committee, co-chaired by Labour’s Joyce Watson and the Tories’ Tom Giffard, was set up to identify gaps in the UK public inquiry.

However, committee members have so far held two briefings with academics from English universities on civil contingencies – an area covered by the UK inquiry.

The committee argues work on identifying gaps can only begin when the UK Covid-19 inquiry reports, so it is gathering expert advice in the interim.

But Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees, who leads Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru, said the gaps are already clear from six weeks of evidence to the judge-led UK inquiry.

Criticising the committee’s suggestion that it will “play it by ear”, she added that the UK inquiry reports are hardly going to identify gaps in its own processes.

She said the academic briefings seem like duplication rather than gap analysis, arguing the public purse should not be footing the bill for bringing MSs up to speed.

A stakeholder event, held in the Welsh Parliament on January 23, was scheduled for an hour-and-a-half but cut short to 45 minutes, leaving families with unanswered questions.

Ms Marsh-Rees, from Abergavenny, whose father died after catching the virus in hospital, criticised a lack of meaningful engagement so far.

She said the committee has failed to fully utilise families’ expertise as core participants in the UK inquiry, raising concerns they have been treated like an annoyance by the committee.

Ms Marsh-Rees stressed the campaign group is not trying to be difficult, saying: “I keep telling them all: we are not doing this for fun – we are doing this to get answers.”

Sam Smith-Higgins, a fellow campaigner, who also lost her father to hospital-acquired Covid-19, said families are in no way at the heart of the committee’s work.

She urged the Senedd to look to the example of the safety net offered by Scotland’s inquiry.

Ms Smith-Higgins said: “In no way is this committee a replacement for a judge-led public inquiry and they do not have the skills or resources to pretend that they can scrutinise anything that comes from the UK inquiry.”

The campaigner described a January 30 briefing as a Btec in civil contingencies, saying: “The worst part of it was they were clearly very focused on the UK Government.

“They didn’t know much about the Welsh Government at all.”

Ms Marsh-Rees cautioned that the Senedd committee heard incorrect advice from academics which risks undermining the UK inquiry.

She said: “It feels to us that this committee isn’t looking at the gaps, it’s almost preparing for the report so it can then defend the Welsh Government.

“There’s much less scrutiny of Wales than the UK, yet they’re even undermining that.”

The committee has met in private four times since it was established in May 2023, with the next meetings on February 20 and March 19 set to be held behind closed doors too.

Ms Smith-Higgins warned that independent scrutiny is non-existent in Wales, saying families felt despondent after witnessing the work of the “ill-thought-out” committee.

She contrasted this with the forensic approach of the UK inquiry, which will sit in Cardiff three weeks from today on February 27.

“It’s like something out of The Vicar of Dibley,” she said, referring to the Wales committee. “It’s just pathetic. Nothing would make me happier than for them to just bin it.”

Warning that the memories of lost loved ones are being “papered over”, she said: “Having listened to what we have listened to so far, it’s better to have nothing than this committee.

“When you’ve got witnesses giving incorrect advice and undermining the UK inquiry, it’s better to have no committee. They are completely wasting their time, our money.”

Ms Marsh-Rees was disappointed when no Labour MSs turned up to a briefing that the bereaved families organised at the Senedd on January 16.

She said: “They should be proud that volunteers are trying to put Wales on the map in a UK inquiry – a UK inquiry they wanted. We have done our best to make sure Wales has parity.”

In a statement, the committee said: “We cannot underestimate the pain and trauma that many across Wales faced throughout the pandemic, and we understand why there is a debate around how in Wales we respond to what happened.

“Our committee has been given a very specific and clear remit, which was agreed by a majority of Members of the Senedd.

“This commits us to looking at the reports of each stage of the UK Covid-19 inquiry, and recommending to the Senedd any gaps that need further examination.

“We can only begin work on identifying these gaps when the UK Covid-19 inquiry reports – the first of which is expected this spring.

“We’ll make sure we involve the public and experts to help us do this. Until then, we are tracking the work of the national inquiry and gathering expert advice to inform our work.

“Those who lost their lives or whose lives were changed forever, and their families, are at the heart of all we are doing.”

Crime

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

Published

5 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.

Crime

Woman stabbed partner in Haverfordwest before handing herself in

Published

5 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Court Reporter

A WOMAN who stabbed her partner during a drug-fuelled episode walked straight into Haverfordwest Police Station and told officers what she had done, Swansea Crown Court has heard.

Amy Woolston, 22, of Dartmouth Street in Milford Haven, arrived at the station at around 8:00pm on June 13 and said: “I stabbed my ex-partner earlier… he’s alright and he let me walk off,” prosecutor Tom Scapens told the court.

The pair had taken acid together earlier in the day, and Woolston claimed she believed she could feel “stab marks in her back” before the incident.

Police find victim with four wounds

Officers went to the victim’s home to check on him. He was not there at first, but returned shortly afterwards. He appeared sober and told police: “Just a couple of things,” before pointing to injuries on his back.

He had three stab or puncture wounds to his back and another to his bicep.

The victim said that when he arrived home from the shop, Woolston was acting “a bit shifty”. After asking if she was alright, she grabbed something from the windowsill — described as either a knife or a shard of glass — and stabbed him.

He told officers he had “had worse from her before”, did not support a prosecution, and refused to go to hospital.

Defendant has long history of violence

Woolston pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding. The court heard she had amassed 20 previous convictions from 10 court appearances, including assaults, battery, and offences against emergency workers.

Defending, Dyfed Thomas said Woolston had longstanding mental health problems and had been off medication prescribed for paranoid schizophrenia at the time.
“She’s had a difficult upbringing,” he added, saying she was remorseful and now compliant with treatment.

Woolston was jailed for 12 months, but the court heard she has already served the equivalent time on remand and will be released imminently on a 12-month licence.

News

BBC apologises to Herald’s editor for inaccurate story

Published

7 hours ago

December 4, 2025

Staff Writer

THE BBC has issued a formal apology and amended a six-year-old article written by BBC Wales Business Correspondent Huw Thomas after its Executive Complaints Unit ruled that the original headline and wording gave an “incorrect impression” that Herald editor Tom Sinclair was personally liable for tens of thousands of pounds in debt.

The 2019 report, originally headlined “Herald newspaper editor Tom Sinclair has £70,000 debts”, has now been changed.

The ECU found: “The wording of the article and its headline could have led readers to form the incorrect impression that the debt was Mr Sinclair’s personal responsibility… In that respect the article failed to meet the BBC’s standards of due accuracy.”

Mr Sinclair said: “I’m grateful to the ECU for the apology and for correcting the personal-liability impression that caused real harm for six years. However, the article still links the debts to ‘the group which publishes The Herald’ when in fact they related to printing companies that were dissolved two years before the Herald was founded in 2013. I have asked the BBC to add that final clarification so the record is completely accurate.”

A formal apology and correction of this kind from the BBC is extremely rare, especially for a story more than six years old.