News story

12th February 2003

Minister Agrees to Meet Grieving Parents of Sean Wildman

Home Office minister Hilary Benn has today (Wednesday 12th) offered to provide an opportunity for the parents of 20 year-old Sean Wildman to come to the Home Office to meet prison service staff in order to find out more about the reasons why their son died.

The offer came as the Minister responded to a debate led by Northavon MP Steve Webb in which the local MP raised the general issue of support for people with drugs problems when they leave prison. In the debate, Steve Webb highlighted the particular experiences of Sean Wildman whose family home was in Charfield, and who finished a short sentence at Exeter prison in November 2002.

The MP said that the Prison had failed to ensure that support services were in place when Sean left prison. As a result, he found himself homeless on the streets of Bristol within days of his release. Within three weeks he had died of a heroin overdose.

In responding, the Minister said that he had great sympathy for the family and said that he would give them the opportunity to meet prison service officials and to find out more about what was done for Sean. He said that the Prison Service had made great strides in terms of its support for people with drugs problems.

He also described a new scheme due to be piloted in the Bristol area next year whereby ex-offenders who want to come off drugs will be provided with supported accommodation on leaving prison in order to help them build on the progress they made whilst they were in custody.

Commenting after the debate, Steve Webb said:

“I welcome the positive response by the Home Office minister. I am sure that the opportunity to put questions to him and to prison service staff will help to complete the jigsaw of what happened to Sean and why he did not get the support he needed to stay off drugs.

Although a great deal of effort is now put into providing support services for people with drugs problems, it is still all too easy for someone to fall through the net, as Sean’s case tragically proved. I hope that this debate and the follow-up meeting will help to ensure that lessons are learned”.

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