Notorious child killer murdered in Yorkshire prison hostage drama

Damien Fowkes, 35, was held after Hatch was taken hostage and attacked by a fellow inmate at the maximum-security Full Sutton prison near York last night.

Hatch, 38, was told he must serve the rest of his life behind bars after being convicted of killing a seven-year-old boy while on parole for a previous child sex attack.

Fowkes, who was transferred to the jail last year, was given a life sentence, and told he must serve a minimum of 12 years, by Northampton Crown Court in September 2002 for three robberies over four days.

He was arrested on suspicion of murder after Hatch was taken hostage and killed last night, sources told the Press Association.

Humberside Police said a 35-year-old inmate was arrested on suspicion of murder and was still being held at the prison. He will be transferred to a police station “at a later date”, the force said.

Hatch had a string of convictions for assaulting young boys when he was jailed for the murder of seven-year-old Sean Williams in January 1994.

Jailing Hatch, Judge Nina Lowry said he was “highly dangerous”.

Sentencing him at the Old Bailey, the judge said: “It is not possible today to envisage when you could be safely released from prison and as of today life imprisonment should mean what it says - namely imprisonment for life.

“In my judgment, you should never be released back into the community while there remains the slightest danger you will reoffend.”

Unemployed Hatch, then 21, was convicted after the jury of six women and six men deliberated for less than three hours and he smirked when he heard the verdict.

Two years previously, he was jailed for three years for assaulting a boy of eight in almost identical circumstances.

His lawyer warned he could kill when he was released.

Within 11 weeks of being paroled in April 1993, Hatch fulfilled that chilling prediction.

Sean was abducted, sexually assaulted and then choked to death after Hatch lured him to his tower block home in Norfolk Close, Finchley, north London.

A postman discovered the youngster’s body taped up in bin liners and dumped in a lift.

A year before he was jailed for attacking the eight-year-old, Hatch abused a boy of 10, dragging him into the same lift where he was later to dump Sean’s body. He indecently assaulted the youngster.

His murder conviction prompted a review of parole and probation for those convicted of sex crimes, with Sean’s mother and father, Lynn and John Williams, saying others had to take some of the blame for their son’s death.

They included the parole board, probation service and doctors who treated Hatch in prison.

Speaking at the time, Mrs Williams said: “Never again must a child be murdered by a pervert. Never again must a family have to suffer this experience and never again must Colin Hatch be released back into our community.”

Detective Superintendent Duncan Macrae, who led the murder inquiry, described Hatch at the time as a frighteningly cunning criminal. He had pulled the wool over the eyes of the authorities and would kill again if he was ever released.

The two-week trial heard fantasies “involving abduction, sexual abuse and the killing of young children” written by Hatch were found in a wardrobe in his mother’s bedroom after his arrest.

Hatch had a string of previous convictions from the age of 15 for attacks on six young boys.

At his previous trial for indecently assaulting the eight year-old boy and choking him until he lost consciousness, psychiatrist Dr Anthony Wilkins said Hatch was a “menace to the public” who should be sent to Broadmoor top security hospital.

But Broadmoor had not considered Hatch dangerous enough at the time, Dr Wilkins said. Instead he was jailed for three years, as the judge was given no alternative.

Today, Humberside Police said the Prison Service called the force shortly before 7.30pm yesterday to alert them to an ongoing incident at the jail and called back about 40 minutes later to say Hatch had died.

Detective Superintendent Dena Fleming will lead the murder probe from the major incident room in Kellythorpe, Driffield.

The last unannounced inspection of Full Sutton jail, carried out in November 2007, found the prison, which holds some of the most difficult and dangerous criminals in the country, was a “commendably stable and largely safe environment”.

“Security impacted across the establishment, but it was generally proportionate to prisoner risk,” it said.

“Despite some complaints from prisoners, categorisation and allocation arrangements were appropriate.”

Two days ago, three convicted murderers were given concurrent life sentences for carrying out a revenge attack on a Bosnian-Serb war criminal at the top-security Wakefield Prison, about 30 miles from Full Sutton.

Indrit Krasniqi, 23, Iliyas Khalid, 24, and Quam Ogumbiyi, 29, entered former general Radislav Krstic’s cell and slashed him with knives or blades in revenge for his role in the killing of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.

The Muslim defendants, who are serving life sentences for murder, were cleared of attempted murder by a jury at Leeds Crown Court but convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “Prisons have a duty to hold all prisoners safely and securely regardless of the crimes they have committed.

“Fortunately a death such as this is a rare event and represents a tragedy for the individual, their family and the prison itself.”