Adam Rickwood was a lively boy who enjoyed the outdoors, loved camping and rabbiting, and had dreams of becoming a police officer or setting up his own garage business.
His mother, Carol Pounder, told me everything started to change for Adam after five family members died within the space of four years. He was constantly crying and upset and would have angry outbursts. “He wanted to know why people died. I tried to explain to him why people died, but he just couldn’t understand it,” Carol said.
By the time he was 14, Adam had been admitted to hospital seven times after overdosing on alcohol and drugs.
He was being held on remand at a child prison, Hassockfield secure training centre, run by Serco, 150 miles from home. Until the night he died he had kept his belongings packed in a sports bag in a staff office, hopeful that his solicitor would get him bail and he could return to live in a children’s home.
A child with special educational needs locked in his cell passed Adam a note to hand to another child. An officer read the note, and ordered Adam to his room. When Adam refused, because in his eyes he had done nothing wrong, the ‘first response’ restraint call was activated and four officers seized and restrained Adam. He was hit in the nose, carried face down to his cell and left in a kneeling position.
