Portsmouth parents look for answers after son with mental health issues dies in 'Monster Mansion'

Jeremie Simmons died aged 21 at HMP Wakefield – which has been nicknamed ‘Monster Mansion’ for the number of high-risk murderers and sex offenders in its custody. He was found hanged in his cell.

Jeremie’s father Steven Simmons and step-mother Maria Brindle said the prison service had failed Jeremie and that he should never have been sent to the Yorkshire prison in the first place.

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Maria said: ‘That prison is for sex offenders and murderers and he wasn’t that. We spoke to him on May 3, he was perfectly fine and said “bye mum, bye dad - I’ll speak to you tomorrow”. He was happy as anything, laughing with us and joking with us.

‘There was no sign that he wanted to kill himself and on May 4 last year we had Ford Prison knocking on our door to say that he’d hanged himself.

‘The mental health team failed him because when he was in Winchester and Aylesbury, he was on suicide watch. As soon as he got to Wakefield, he wasn’t.’

Jeremie Simmons was arrested after he assaulted a woman in Eastleigh in August 2020. He pleaded guilty to one count of assault causing actual bodily harm, one count of threats to kill and one count of kidnap at Southampton Crown Court on September 9, 2020.

He was further found guilty of kidnap with intent to commit a sexual offence after a three-day trial in March 2021.

He was sentenced to 13 years and four months for the incident which was described as ‘harrowing’ by Hampshire detective constable Sean Owens.

Before his death at HMP Wakefield less than two years later, he had been transferred between HMP Isle of Wight, HMP Winchester and HMP Aylesbury.

His parents have been left in the dark about why their son was moved to the Yorkshire prison and do not believe the official account of his death which was ruled as asphyxia and hanging.

The couple also allege that the copy of Jeremie’s suicide note they were sent does not match his handwriting when compared with letters he sent to his dad.

Maria added: ‘He wrote his dad a suicide note but we’ve been told that we can’t have the original because the police have it as evidence, but the one we’ve got theres nothing in there for evidence. We don’t think that Jeremie wrote it - we took it to the solicitor and even the solicitor said “no, that doesn’t look like his writing”.

‘We got told that he hung himself but we don’t know if he was beaten up as well. I searched it up on the NHS website and if you ligature or noose yourself, you end up with bruises on your legs and your arms. But he had a massive bruise on the side of his cheek and it looked like he’s got teeth missing as well.’ The couple saw these injuries when they were called to identify Jeremie’s body.

An investigation into Jeremie’s death was carried out by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman. The initial report found that his mental healthcare at the prison was ‘not of the required standard’. Jeremie suffered from PTSD, had a learning disability and was also thought to have autism but never received an official diagnosis before his death.

The Ombudsman report, seen by The News, states that some members of the healthcare team including his recovery worker were unaware Jeremie had a learning disability or of the full extent of his history with self harm. It concludes that ‘there was an absence of safeguarding within the healthcare delivery at HMP Wakefield to prevent and protect Mr Simmons coming to harm.’

The document further details an incident that happened while he was in the prison’s segregation unit for the last three months of his life. Another prisoner carried out a ‘dirty protest’ which could have been particularly damaging for Jeremie as it could have triggered an extremely traumatic childhood memory, which had left him with PTSD. The Ombudsman’s clinical review found no evidence that this was taken into account by the mental health team.

The report stated: ‘The longer-term planning and management of Mr Simmons’ self-harm ceased on transfer to HMP Wakefield.’

Mental healthcare which he was prescribed at HMP Aylesbury was not continued by the Wakefield team following his transfer despite a ‘thorough mental health handover’ and record keeping at the prison was found to be ‘scant’ and sometimes ‘absent’.

During his time at HMP Winchester, a mislabelling incident led Jeremie to be given twice his prescribed dosage of the antidepressant medication Sertraline, the Ombudsman found.

Steven Simmons said: ‘What we’ve been told on the phone and face to face with another prison service is not matching up in the reports. It sounds like they’re trying to cover up and blame Jeremie for hanging himself.’

A Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘As with all deaths in custody, the Prison and Probation Ombudsman is conducting an investigation. We are unable to comment until their findings are published.’

Steven and Maria are waiting to find out when an inquest will held, after which the full result of the Ombudsman investigation will be published.