A prisoner who was told he couldn’t return to his marital home to prevent him bumping into his victims offered to remain inside, an inquest heard.
Bill Bissett had been jailed for six and-a-half years in 2020 after being found guilty of sexually abusing five young boys during his time as a Boys Brigade leader at the Church Street Methodist Church group in St Anne’s.
In June 2023 Bill, 88, was informed that an exclusion zone would be put in place upon his release, at the request of his victims, and was left “in shock” and “angry” when he realised it included all of Lytham and Blackpool.
Bill, a retired civil servant, was told he could not challenge the terms of his release, and just weeks before he was due to leave Wymott Prison he was informed he would be housed in a Travelodge in either Preston or Chorley.
On the day he was due to be released, October 13 in 2023, Bill was found hanging in his prison cell. In a letter to Monica, his wife of 56 years, Bill said: “I am not prepared to be forced to spend the rest of my, obviously at 88, short life without us being together.”
An inquest into Bill’s death started this week at County Hall in Preston. The inquest has heard that Bill felt “in limbo” because of the exclusion zone and was frustrated that the state would pay for his accommodation when he had a home.
Jonathan Johnson, a Prison Offender Manager at HMP Wymott, had several conversations with Bill prior to his upcoming release date. Mr Johnson, who has worked as a POM since November 2022 and in the prison service in total for 30 years, said Bill took the news of the exclusion zone “very badly”.
“He wasn’t screaming and shouting but you could see the frustration within him,” Mr Johnson told the jury.
Six months before his release date, in March 2023, Bill had refused the option of being transferred to a Category D open prison because it would mean his wife wasn’t able to visit him.
In Mr Johnson’s notes from a meeting with Bill, shown to the jury, he wrote: “He tells me that he does not want Cat D because he is receiving visits from his wife that he will not get at Haverigg.”
After Bill was told about the exclusion zone, which covered a “large area” of Fylde, he told Mr Johnson that he “isn’t a threat to anyone” and felt victimised due to his age. The inquest heard that some of his victims lived “only a couple of streets away” from his home in Lytham.
At one point Bill even offered to remain indoors for the remainder of his licence period, due to expire in July 2027, so that he could live with his wife. Bill had also expressed his frustration that he would be allowed to enter the exclusion zone to attend meetings with the Probation Service and housing officers at Fylde Council but could not live in his home of 41 years.
Maya Grantham, a human rights lawyer with Leigh Day who is representing Bill’s family, pointed out that Bill “wasn’t refusing to abide by the rules” but simply had an issue with being prevented from returning to his home.
“He even offered to go home and not leave it,” Ms Grantham said. “He wasn’t being difficult or refusing to abide by any rules, it was simply the fact that he couldn’t go back to his home.” The inquest, which is due to last eight days, continues.
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