Prisoner strangled cellmate with TV cable after telling victim he would kill him if he slept

Michael Harkin killed Dan Childs with a TV aerial cord as he slept before slashing a second inmate in the showers

A prisoner was strangled to death by his cellmate, who had developed the 'delusional belief that he was a paedophile'. Michael Harkin killed Dan Childs with a TV aerial cord as he slept.

Harkin - who had been recalled to HMP Bristol just 24 hours after being released for breaching his licence - then tucked the 38-year-old up in his bunk bed. Mr Childs, who was originally from Telford, was discovered dead the next morning.

Prior to his death, Mr Childs told another inmate that Harkin had threatened to kill him if he fell asleep. He'd said: “My cellmate won’t let me sleep, he tells me if I go to sleep he’ll suffocate me.”

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Bristol Crown Court heard that when the cell was opened the following morning, Harkin had 'walked out as if nothing had happened', before slashing his former cellmate in the showers with an improvised blade. The court heard the second victim had shared a cell with Harkin for just one night before demanding he was moved over fears "there was something not right" about him.

The court heard at the time of the attacks, psychiatrists had concluded Harkin was suffering from schizophrenia and had developed delusions about religion. He was convicted of the manslaughter of Mr Childs by diminished responsibility by a jury, which had cleared him of murder on the direction of the judge.

Harkin was also found guilty of wounding the other prisoner, and not guilty of a separate count of attempting to wound a member of prison staff who sought to intervene. A hospital order under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act and a restriction order under Section 41 – meaning Harkin can be detained indefinitely - was imposed by Mr Justice Bryan.

The judge told him: “I must now sentence you in the light of the verdicts returned by the jury, set against the backdrop that you remain profoundly mentally unwell, and have been detained in, and remain detained in, Broadmoor Hospital, where it is common ground you will need to remain for treatment for the foreseeable future. Your treating consultant forensic psychiatrist in Broadmoor cannot foresee a time when it would be appropriate or safe for you to be returned to the prison system.”

The judge went on to describe the attack on Mr Childs, which took place on the evening of June 4 last year. “At some point you killed him by strangling him with the co-axial cord from the cell TV,” he said.

“It appears from the pathology evidence that you may have strangled him whilst he was asleep as there is no physical evidence of a struggle. It appears you then ‘tucked him up’ in his sheets on the top bunk.

“When the cell was opened in the morning you walked out of the cell as if nothing had happened, and CCTV on the landing captures you walking around the landing and interacting with others, no-one being aware that Mr Childs was lying dead in his cell. In terms of why you killed Mr Childs, it appears that Mr Childs had the misfortune to have ‘child’ in his name and this led you to the delusional belief that he was a paedophile, which was completely, and absolutely, untrue and had no basis in fact whatsoever.”

Describing the subsequent shower attack, the judge said: “You slashed him repeatedly with the weapon, resulting in deep cuts to his left shoulder and neck, that have resulted in permanent scarring. He thought he was going to die, as well he might if others had not intervened, and he had bled out. His screams were heard by another prisoner who tried to fend you off with a long-handled mop.”