Prisoner remanded for strangling child sex killer Colin Hatch

Damien Fowkes, 35, was remanded in custody by Beverley magistrates and told he must appear at Hull Crown Court on Tuesday March 8.

He was arrested after Hatch was allegedly taken hostage and strangled by a fellow inmate at the maximum-security Full Sutton prison near York on Tuesday night.

Fowkes appeared via videolink for the five-minute hearing.

A post-mortem examination found Hatch died after being strangled, Humberside Police said.

The Prison Service called the force shortly before 7.30pm on Tuesday to alert them to an ongoing incident at the jail and called back about 40 minutes later to say Hatch had died.

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.

He 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 at the Old Bailey, Judge Nina Lowry said he was “highly dangerous” and should spend the rest of his life behind bars.

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.

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.

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.