Staff suspended over child murderer’s cell flit

Two staff members at a top-security Yorkshire jail have been suspended as an investigation continues into how a child murderer was able to sneak into a fellow inmate’s cell.
By Rob Preece Crime Correspondent
Published 2nd Nov 2011, 09:31 BST

The Yorkshire Post revealed in August that Timothy Cuffy got out of his cell after making a dummy to fool officers at Wakefield Prison into thinking he was asleep.

He was found with another male Category A prisoner, with whom he was believed to have been having a relationship.

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Cuffy was jailed for life in 2003 for the murder of 13-year-old Sandy Hadfield. He plied her with vodka before leading her to secluded woods and slitting her throat with a 12in Gurkha knife.

Almost two years before the killing, Cuffy had been granted early release from a six-year sentence for burglary and assault against a blind woman.

The Prison Service said an investigation into how Cuffy got out of his cell was still in progress, but it confirmed two members of staff had been suspended.

The matter is one of two internal inquiries being conducted at the prison following allegations made by the Yorkshire Post this year.

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In the other, a female prison officer remains suspended after it was claimed she had an affair with killer Leigh Thornhill, who was jailed for life for murdering a mother-of-two with a piece of wood and attacking another woman on the same night.