A coroner has warned the Government that placing people convicted of sexual offences on the same wings as other prisoners could cost more lives.
Dianne Hocking presided over the inquest into the death of Nigel Feckey, 64, who took his own life at HMP Fosse Way in 2024. At the time, the prison held people convicted of sexual offences alongside other prisoners on mixed-offence wings.
Mr Feckey had complained that other prisoners bullied him and picked on him because of his offences. He was found dead on 23 September 2024.
A month before, in August 2024, Mahir Abdulrahman, a sex offender, died on a mixed-offence wing at Fosse Way. Other prisoners who objected to the nature of his offences killed him.
Serco, which runs Fosse Way, changed its policy after the two deaths. Since March 2025, the prison has housed most ‘Vulnerable Prisoners’ (VPs), including people convicted of sexual offences, on separate wings.
Coroner’s warning
After the inquest, Ms Hocking issued a Prevention of Future Deaths notice to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). She acknowledged that Fosse Way had taken its own steps to reduce risk.
“I understand that the policy remains and is still implemented in other prisons and it is a matter of concern to me that a future death may occur,” she wrote.
She said offence-neutral wings left people convicted of sexual offences feeling scared. They could also make other prisoners uncomfortable, because those prisoners did not want to live alongside sex offenders.
Adrian Usher, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, also investigated Mr Feckey’s death. He noted that VPs at Fosse Way can now choose separate accommodation. However, education and training sessions there still mix VPs and other prisoners.
He asked the prison to monitor tension levels after the changes. Serco says it is doing so and that the results are positive. “No specific concerns regarding offence-related incidents have been raised since the changes were implemented,” the company said.
Other prisons and the ministry’s response
HMP Millsike already held VPs on separate wings. It has now changed its timetable so that VPs and other prisoners have separate family visiting times.
At HMP Wakefield, two vulnerable prisoners died on mixed-offence wings in 2025. Since then the prison has moved some prisoners out and brought others in to reduce violence. According to HM Inspectorate of Prisons, the large majority of those held there are now VPs.
Ms Hocking said that non-VP witnesses at the inquest had resisted sharing wings with sex offenders, both vocally and physically. Despite this, the MoJ told her that a small number of prisons operate offence-neutral policies. It said this helps create a rehabilitative culture that enables people to return to society on release.
The ministry added that holding all prisoners together gives them all better access to training and resettlement programmes.
Last month, before he stepped down as Prisons Minister, Lord Timpson said that governors should decide whether to run mixed-offence wings. “I would say this is an operational decision based on risk,” he said. He added that some prisons run mixed regimes safely and well while others do not, and that operational matters of this kind were not for ministers.
HMP Fosse Way is a category C prison for men in the East Midlands. Its last full inspection, in June 2025, rated safety not sufficiently good and the other three areas reasonably good.
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