BREAKING: A Child sex offender described as a “predator” who had over 700 abuse images taken his own life in prison with an overdose after “tensions with other prisoners”

A prison has been criticised after a convicted sex offender took his own life behind bars after being allowed to keep anxiety medication in his cell, despite a previous suicide attempt. Steven Blake, described by police as a “sexual predator”, died in April 2023 while serving a sentence at HMP Haverigg in Cumbria, a Prisons and Probation Ombudsman report has revealed.

The 38-year-old died after taking an overdose of prescription medication he had been given for anxiety. The watchdog’s investigation found that while Blake had been receiving mental health support in prison, serious concerns remained over how his medication was prescribed and monitored in the months leading up to his death.

According to the report, Blake’s anxiety had increased during his time at HMP Haverigg, fuelled by worries about his life after release, the nature of his offences and tensions with other prisoners. He had been receiving mental health care and was known to prison staff, but Ombudsman Adrian Usher said the watchdog was satisfied that staff could not reasonably have identified that Blake intended to end his life imminently.

The report concluded that the clinical care Blake received was generally of a good standard, but raised concerns about the decision to allow him to keep medication in his cell despite a previous overdose attempt within the past year. Healthcare staff failed to identify this history when assessing whether the medication could be safely managed by Blake himself, and no fresh risk assessment was carried out when a new drug was prescribed.

On the day of his death, another prisoner alerted officers that Blake had taken an overdose. Staff called an ambulance, but he suffered a cardiac arrest and died despite efforts to save him. A coroner later recorded a conclusion of suicide due to prescription drug overdose.

Blake, from Failsworth, had been sentenced to two years and nine months in prison in May 2022 after being convicted of a string of serious sexual offences involving children. Police said he had been communicating on the Kik messaging app with an undercover officer, which led to his arrest and the seizure of his electronic devices. Investigators discovered 1,821 indecent images, including 777 classed as the most serious Category A material. A detective described him as having a “keen and clear sexual interest in the sexual abuse of very young children”.

While the report acknowledged that prison staff acted compassionately and appropriately when responding to the emergency, it highlighted systemic failures in how Blake’s mental health history was considered when prescribing medication. The ombudsman has now issued a series of recommendations to prevent similar deaths in future, including improved checks of prisoners’ medical histories and more robust risk assessments when prescribing drugs that could be used for self-harm.

HMP Haverigg, a category D open prison in west Cumbria, had not recorded a self-inflicted death since 2018 prior to Blake’s death. The report has renewed concerns about how vulnerable prisoners are monitored, particularly when they have known mental health issues and a history of suicide attempts.