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A report has revealed that a prisoner at Strangeways took his own life after telling his family he was only allowed out of his cell for 90 minutes each day. Lee Gorst, aged 35, was discovered hanged in his cell at HMP Manchester on April 25, 2023. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) report disclosed that Gorst had referred to Strangeways as "a dump" and claimed that knives were being smuggled into the prison via drones every night. He also alleged that prison officers frequently forgot to let him out of his cell for meals and expressed shock at the level of violence within the prison. A verdict of suicide was recorded following an inquest. According to the PPO report, the prison was operating under a "restricted regime" due to staffing issues at the time, resulting in Gorst spending extended periods alone in his cell. In a letter found posthumously, he wrote that he was "locked in his cell alone for twenty two-and-a-half hours a day, with every minute of his life controlled". PPO investigators were informed that prisoners were typically allowed out of their cells for around two hours per day during this period, reports the Manchester Evening News . In October 2024, following an inspection, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, issued an urgent notification to the Secretary of State for Justice regarding a "concerning decline" at the prison. The jail was branded "squalid" and "the most violent in the UK". Inspectors revealed that organised crime gangs and drug smuggling into the crumbling Victorian facility were "clearly undermining every aspect of prison life". Strangeways, according to Mr Taylor, was "fundamentally not safe" for inmates and staff alike. The prison was then hit with an 'Urgent Notification'. "A number of the concerns HM Inspectorate of Prisons identified are relevant to the matters Mr Gorst raised during his telephone conversations," stated the PPO report into his death, which was published last week. In December, 2013, Gorst received a sentence of 13 years and four months for attempted murder and false imprisonment. He was freed on licence in January 2020 but was recalled to custody in June 2021 after being charged with robbery, unlawful wounding and making threats to kill. In September, 2021, he received a custodial term of four-and-a-half years, then in February 2023 he was handed a life sentence, with a minimum term of five years, for a knifepoint raid on a store in Clayton, north Manchester. He arrived at HMP Manchester in March of that year and rejected "thoughts of suicide or self-harm" upon entry, the report stated. "During his telephone conversations with his partner, Mr Gorst revealed that he was struggling to come to terms with the length of his sentence and he was unhappy with the regime and environment at Manchester," it continued. The ombudsman, Adrian Usher, expressed his "concern" that upon Gorst's arrival at Strangeways, he wasn't given a proper induction and didn't receive any key work. This led to Gorst spending "extended periods of time in his cell on his own", according to the report. "It is clear that this had a negative impact on him," Mr Usher penned. Gorst's body was discovered when an officer came to his cell for "afternoon association". "The prison was operating a limited regime, which meant that prisoners were spending significant amounts of time in their cells, and there were very few opportunities for prisoners to engage in purposeful activities," the report stated. "There was a delay in paramedics attending the emergency. It took prison staff 14 minutes to conduct security checks and to escort the paramedics through the prison." Gorst was the 16th prisoner to die at HMP Manchester since April 2020. The report discloses that days before his death, he phoned his partner and voiced his worries. "He told her that he was very depressed, he did not want to be in prison, Manchester was a dump and he hated it," the report revealed. He also grumbled to her that officers had forgotten to let him out of his cell for food, which he claimed happened regularly. Five days prior to his death, he rang his partner again, informing her that "there were lots of knives in the prison which were coming in by drones every night". "Mr Gorst said that he hated the prison, and everything was getting on top of him," the report discloses. "He said he had watched a television programme called 'Parole' (a BBC documentary series focusing on the work of the Parole Board), and he thought it was going to be very hard for him to get released at the first opportunity. "He said that he was only getting an hour and half out of the cell each day and he spent the rest of the time lying on his bed." The investigation uncovered that Gorst had scrawled "my last day" on April 22 in his calendar - three days before his death - and had penned a letter to his relatives on that same day, which he described as his suicide note. The report stated: "Mr Gorst wrote about how the reality of his life sentence had sunk in and how it would take him years after he served the minimum five years before he would be released. He said that it was a lonely, hard existence, he was locked in his cell alone for twenty two-and-a-half hours a day, with every minute of his life controlled and he did not have a release date to look forward to. "Mr Gorst wrote that he knew he could not do the sentence." He was also reportedly "stunned" by a stabbing incident involving inmates on the wing the day prior to his death. A Prison Service spokesman commented: "Since Mr Gorst's death the amount of time prisoners have out of their cells at HMP Manchester has improved due to an increase in staff being deployed to the prison." For emotional support, you can call the Samaritans 24-hour helpline on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org , visit a Samaritans branch in person or go to the Samaritans website. For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters .
