Woman who miscarried in private prison
'made to clean up after herself,' court told Alleged incident took place in HMP
Peterborough after Nadine Wright was
arrested for stealing food 'out of desperation' File image showing a prison cell. A woman was
made to clean up after herself after having a
miscarriage in her cell. A woman who had a miscarriage at a private
prison was left to clean up after herself while the
foetus remained in her cell, it has been alleged. Although a nurse was present when remand
prisoner Nadine Wright, 37, lost her baby, she
says the foetus was left with her afterwards and
that she had to clean up the blood. Her barrister, Philip Gibbs, told Leicester Crown
Court: “There was blood everywhere and she was
made to clean it up. “The baby was not removed from the cell. It was
quite appalling. It was very traumatic. She only
received health care three days later, after the
governor intervened.” The incident allegedly took place the day after
Wright was taken into custody at HMP
Peterborough on 23 November. It was not
revealed in court how many months pregnant she
was. Mr Gibbs told the court that Wright had landed in
prison after she stole £13.94 worth of food out of
desperate hunger as she did not have the money
to pay for it because she had not been given
benefit payments she was entitled to. The alleged incident came to light when Wright
appeared for sentencing for breach of two court
orders in place following previous offences by
shoplifting the items and failing to attend
appointments with the probation service. Wright pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10
months' jail. Mr Gibbs also attacked the probation service,
accusing it of failure to help Wright to receive any
benefit payments during the 11 months she was
under its supervision. Wright has mental health issues, had been battling
long term heroin addiction and had recently lost
her mother, as well as being pregnant when she
was arrested, Mr Gibbs explained. He said an investigation into Ms Wright’s alleged
mistreatment would now be carried out by her
legal representatives. HMP Peterborough is a category B privately-run
prison managed by Sodexo Justice Services. The company was contacted for a comment by The Mercury news agency but a spokesperson said it “cannot comment publicly on individual cases”,
and would not reveal whether an inquiry following
the alleged incident is being carried out. “A prisoner received medical treatment on the day
of her arrival in prison and was seen by a GP the
following day,” the spokesperson said. “We have a duty of care to all prisoners that we
hold. As part of that, we ensure that all prisoners
have access to the same level of NHS services as
those in the community.”