Portsmouth woman Charlotte Nokes died in prison due to 'natural causes', court rules

Charlotte Nokes, from Portsmouth, was found dead in her cell at HMP Peterborough on July 23, 2016, at the age of 38.

She had been serving an indefinite Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence and had been behind bars for eight and a half years.

When sentenced in 2008, she was told she would serve a minimum of 15 months.

The court heard of how Charlotte feared she would spend the rest of her life in prison – describing the IPP to her family as a 'death sentence’.

Tara Mulcair, representing Charlotte’s family, said: ‘Charlotte’s inquest has shone a light on the injustice faced by IPP prisoners.

‘Charlotte was caught in a vicious cycle of indefinite incarceration, which created a strong sense of hopelessness and exacerbated her poor mental health, which in turn led to her continued detention.

‘In Charlotte’s mind, there was no prospect of release, as is the case for many still serving IPP sentences.’

Charlotte had been jailed indefinitely after being found guilty of attempted robbery and carrying a bladed weapon after an incident in Southsea.

In prison, she had been placed on suicide and self-harm monitoring procedures after attempting to take her own life; this meant Charlotte was on twice-hourly observations from officers.

The jury concluded that the cause of Charlotte's death was sudden arrhythmic death syndrome, which is where someone dies by cardiac arrest with no obvious root cause.

Her father, Steven Nokes, said: ‘As a family, we remain concerned about the way Charlotte was treated in prison and do not believe the care she received was appropriate.

‘She had many struggles in life, was beaten up for being ‘different’ and experienced mental ill health. Prison was never the best place for her.

‘The indefinite sentence only made this worse. Charlotte lost hope and so did we.

‘She told us the IPP sentence was really a life sentence, and despite her hopes and dreams of moving to London to study art, she knew she would die in prison.

‘This cannot continue.’