Danny Aloysius Riley (Hansard, 24 April 1995)

§ Mr. Michael Forsyth

Responsibility for these matters has been delegated to the director general of the Prison Service who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Mr. Derek Lewis to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 24 April 1995: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the grounds on which a prison governor can decline to send a prisoner awaiting trial to court, the reasons given by the governor of Durham prison for not sending Danny Aloysius Riley to Wakefield Magistrates' Court and the circumstances in which the Department was unable to establish in which prison Danny Aloysius Riley was being held when he was due to appear at Wakefield Magistrates' Court. The prisoner you refer to is Danny Aloysius Reilly. Where there is a warrant or court order addressed to the governor of a prison requiring him to produce a prisoner, such a warrant must be obeyed unless alternative arrangements have been made with the court. This is usually in cases where the prisoner is ill or, where there are serious difficulties in meeting the production date, perhaps because of distance or staff availability. In the case to which you refer, a production order was received at Durham prison on 13 March 1995 to produce Mr. Reilly at Wakefield Magistrates' Court on 23 March. The governor considered that it would cause staffing difficulties with security implications at Durham prison to produce Mr. Reilly on that date. The matter was therefore discussed with the court on 17 March and the court agreed to reschedule the hearing for 20 April. Arrangements have been made to transfer Mr. Reilly to Leeds for production on that date. The prisoner referred to was charged and convicted under the name of Reilly and his name is recorded as such on his prison records. On 23 March, Durham prison contacted with a query from the Yorkshire Post about a Mr. Aloysius Riley. A check was carried out using the spelling Riley. No Aloysius Riley could be found. As it was known that the prisoner being traced was serving a life sentence, it was suggested that enquiries be directed to Frankland prison, which as a dispersal prison, holds a large number of prisoners serving life sentences. Enquiries at Frankland proved fruitless and Durham prison was contacted again about half and hour later. This time the records were checked using the spelling Reilly and Mr. Danny Aloysius Reilly was identified. There was no question of the Prison Service being unable to trace Mr. Reilly but rather a need to establish the full and correct name.