R.i.p Stephen Connell fund

Aim

to get enough to get represented next month in the inquest for a barrister thank u very much for any contribution and for taking the time

In 2016, 107 people killed themselves in prison. One of those people was my best friend, Stephen Connell. Stephen was just 20 years old when he was found hanging from his cell window on 18 February 2016 and taken to hospital. He never regained consciousness, and died a few days later.

I met Stephen when we were both young teenagers and we instantly clicked, becoming really close friends and eventually he moved in with me and my sister. Stephen became part of our family. He was a brother to us and was a kind, fun-loving young lad, but underneath his smile Stephen struggled to cope. He had a really tough childhood and was in and out of care from an early age. Because of this, Stephen had mental health issues and got himself into trouble sometimes.

When Stephen went to prison he would write to us and call us whenever he could, but he never mentioned the problems he was having with being bullied. He also never mentioned the fact that he would self harm and that he had even tried to kill himself.

Stephen was vulnerable, ill and alone. He needed help and treatment so that he could be rehabilitated and live the long and happy life he should have had.

He was not the first prisoner to kill himself at HMP Hindley after being bullied. 17 year old Jake Hardy killed himself after intolerable bullying in 2014 and his Inquest found that he had not received the proper care and support he should have.  

22 January 2018 will be the start of an Inquest which will look into whether Stephen received the care and support he should have done. At that Inquest, the interests of the prison, the interests of the prison’s healthcare provider and the interests of the prison’s mental healthcare provider will all be represented by a separate legal team. Usually, there is a legal team there to represent a person’s family. Stephen will have no one.

The Legal Aid Agency has refused us funding because we are not related to Stephen by blood, even though I was legally designated as Stephen’s next of kin while he was at hospital. When Stephen died, my sister paid for his funeral and we had him buried in our family grave.

To all intents and purposes, Stephen was our family and this is why the Coroner ruled that I am an Interested Person and I have the right to representation at the Inquest. Unfortunately, I have no legal training, no idea how Inquests work and I would be on my own with three sets of lawyers representing the other Interested Persons.

I’m asking you to contribute to this crowdfunder because the last thing I can do for my brother is find out what went wrong, and stop what happened to Stephen and Jake happening to anyone else. There is no way we would be able to pay the legal costs ourselves.

All of the money raised by this crowdfunder will go purely to fund legal fees for representation at Stephen’s Inquest.

This project successfully funded on 25th January 2018