By Anna Lewis

Copyright bbc

In April it was reported one staff member at the prison responded to a complaint about an inmate saying they needed to be “broken mentally and physically”.

In the messages, one exchange about an inmate said they “opened the door and they smashed him into the shower lol”.

A response to the message said: “Good! I hope they hurt him too.”

A separate exchange used an expletive to describe punching an inmate “after he bit me so there’s some closure”, along with a laughing emoji.

Other messages included jokes about someone who was said to be at risk of taking their life and another offender who was seriously self-harming.

At the time, G4S said it had a “zero tolerance” approach to staff behaviour that fell short of its standards.

In response to the messages, South Wales Police said it had established a dedicated team to “thoroughly examine all communications related to misconduct at HMP Parc”, focusing on allegations of assault and misconduct in public office.

The force said it had forwarded the findings from its investigation to G4S to address any “internal conduct issues that may arise”.

In September 2024 four custody officers were arrested on suspicion of assault and misconduct in public office.

An additional arrest phase took place in January 2025, which saw one man released under investigation and five individuals bailed for further inquiries.

In an update on Thursday, South Wales Police spokesperson: “Following a comprehensive review, all criminal proceedings against those arrested have now concluded.

“On the guidance of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), these individuals have been released without charge.”

Det Ch Insp Dean Taylor said: “I want to be clear that, together with our partners at G4S, we are taking significant steps to ensure that inappropriate behaviour at HMP Parc will not be tolerated.”