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Sunday World
09-06-2025
- Sunday World
Serial sex predator back on the prowl after prison chiefs give him second chance
Remorseless attacker knocked one woman's teeth out and grabbed another by the genitals Thomas Ward has been told he's not welcome back to Coalisland One of Ulster's most dangerous sex predators is back on the prowl after prison chiefs deemed him worthy of a second chance. Thomas Ward was fast-tracked into a pre-release programme in 2023 but he breached the terms of his release and was thrown back into jail. In 2011 a judge deemed Ward, who is now aged 37, to be so dangerous he was ordered to serve an indeterminate jail term for a second sick sex attack on a woman. But five years before that Ward kidnapped a 45-year-old woman and sexually assaulted her and tried to rape her – knocking out her teeth during the savage attack. We can reveal that remorseless sex attacker Ward is now back on the streets after he was given a second chance at serving the last few months of his sentence in Burren House. Burren House holds up to 20 prisoners in unlocked cells at a site in the grounds of the old Crumlin Road jail in Belfast and inmates are allowed to leave the unit during the day and even have jobs. Recently we revealed a list of killers and other life-sentence prisoners who are due to be either released completely or are due to be sent to Burren House – the Northern Ireland Prison Service's 'open prison' unit designed to prepare lifers for permanent release They include monsters like Stephen 'Bulldog' Scott who hacksawed his pregnant teenage girlfriend Sylvia Fleming after he'd murdered her in 1998, and Andrew Robinson, jailed for life for stabbing his fiancée, Julie-Anne Osborne, nearly 50 times in 2001. Burren House holds up to 20 prisoners in unlocked cells Security sources have told the Sunday World they want a review of the process, pointing out how some prisoners have been moved there multiple times despite their rule-breaking while others who are well behaved never get a chance. Despite his disgusting crimes and rule breaches, Ward has been deemed safe to be set loose on the streets. As part of his first release programme back in 2023, Ward has been on several UTRs (unaccompanied temporary releases) with family. He has also been approved access to female relatives despite being a danger to women and being deemed the most high-risk level of sex offender. 'Here's another one who has breached the rules and been sent back but is getting another chance,' said a prison insider. 'He's a thug too – he was notorious for picking on other inmates and beating them up. He was even done for attacking a prison officer ten years ago so it's not like he's been a model prisoner. 'It's another example of someone getting preferential treatment for some reason while other prisoners who do behave never get a chance.' When he was first listed for release to Burren two years ago, members of the Traveller community, of which Thomas Ward belongs, made it clear he wasn't welcome back in Coalisland where he had lived before. In February 2011, Ward followed and attacked a woman as she jogged through Cookstown in a terrifying repeat offence. After grabbing the woman by her genitals, he then chased her down the street. The shocking incident – caught on CCTV – happened in broad daylight and police caught him shortly afterwards in a Tesco car park. The woman told police she only escaped his attack when she fled into a house. Judge David McFarland ordered that Ward serve an indeterminate prison sentence with a minimum of two years and only to be released when he is no longer thought to pose a risk of reoffending. But the husband of his first victim – who Ward tried to rape in 2006 – told us there should never have been a second. Thomas Ward has been told he's not welcome back to Coalisland ui Ward had already served two years of a five-year sentence for another serious sex attack in 2006 before he was released into the public again as a Category Three offender – the most dangerous on the scale. In 2010 the husband of that victim told the Sunday World that Ward would strike again and should never have been released. Speaking at the time, the man said: 'That animal will attack another woman I have no doubt about it.' As it turned out he did strike again and appeared in court just a few days after our article appeared when he attacked the female jogger in Cookstown. 'Ward should never have been out free to attack this poor woman,' said the man, who asked not to be identified to protect his wife. 'This time they should lock him up and throw away the key – he's an animal. He wrecked my wife's life and all he served was two-and-a-half years of a five-year jail sentence.' Ward assaulted the man's wife after he had kidnapped her in Coalisland. He held the 45-year-old woman against her will and knocked out her teeth during the savage attack. As well as sexual assault, Ward was also convicted of kidnapping and causing his victim actual bodily harm. The attack only ended when his victim wrapped her handbag around her fist and hit him before biting his fingers. She then ran in the dark through a wooded area and managed to flag down a passing female motorist.
Irish Post
06-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Post
Prisoners complete Belfast City Marathon for children's cancer charity
TWENTY prisoners completed the Belfast City Marathon over the weekend to raise funds for a children's cancer charity. The Maghaberry Prison inmates, who were all aged between 21 and 70 years old, ran the 26.2 mile marathon distance inside the prison's walls while the Belfast marathon got underway in the city on May 4. Two prison service staff teams, including Deputy Governor Claire Graham, also took part in the run, which raised money for the Cancer Fund for Children charity. 'This is the third Belfast Marathon held in Maghaberry Prison,' Maghaberry Prison Governor Tracy Megrath said. 'We started this in 2023 and it's been an annual event for the staff and prisoners ever since. 'The prisoners have been on a structured programme since January this year - as well as the fitness aspect they've been learning about good nutrition and diet,' she added. 'Several hundred pounds has already been raised through donations from staff and fellow prisoners, and we expect the final total to top £1000.' Chloe Walkingshaw, Governor in charge of Activities at Maghaberry Prison, pictured with Cormac McMullan, Community Fundraising and Engagement Lead with the Cancer Fund for Children, pictured with some of the prisoners who took part in the run Belfast Marathon administrators measured an official prison course for the prisoners to complete the 26.2miles. Ms Megrath added: 'The Prison Service challenge and support all those who are sent to us by the courts, and through various rehabilitation projects and purposeful activity we promote a sense of achievement and prepare them for the return to their community.' Cormac McMullan, Community Fundraising and Engagement lead with the Cancer Fund for Children, said the charity was 'incredibly grateful' for the prison's support. 'We are incredibly grateful to the Northern Ireland Prison Service at Maghaberry Prison for taking on this challenge to support families affected by cancer,' he said. 'Every week in Northern Ireland, three more children and young people are diagnosed with cancer, and many others are living with the impact of a parent's diagnosis. 'The funds raised will help us provide vital support in hospital, in the community, and at our therapeutic centre, Daisy Lodge - ensuring young people don't have to face cancer alone.'
The Guardian
01-04-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Dr Ian Bownes obituary
When Irish republicans in the Maze prison began organising hunger strikes in 1980 to secure political status for inmates, one of the first experts called in by the Northern Ireland Prison Service was the psychiatrist Dr Ian Bownes. Though he was then only a trainee, it was his role to assess the mental state of those threatening to starve themselves to death – checking whether they had the capacity to understand that their lives could end and had effectively given their consent freely. That Bownes, who has died aged 69 after a short illness, should have been chosen for such a delicate mission at the very start of his career demonstrates how under-resourced psychiatry services were in Northern Ireland at the time, but also points to his determination and bravery. Prison officials were then regularly being murdered by the Provisional IRA and other paramilitary groups when off-duty and vulnerable, accused of being part of a repressive state or of having mistreated inmates. The hunger strikes ended in October 1981 after 10 republicans – including Bobby Sands, the IRA leader in the Maze prison – had died. Sands, who was elected as MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone during his protest, refused food for 66 days. Bownes, a distinctive, brawny figure with a walrus-moustache, spent years of his professional life going in and out of the Maze and Maghaberry prisons, carrying out assessments of those charged with or convicted of terror offences. As a consultant forensic psychiatrist (which he later became), it was his role to write court reports dealing with the law's interface with mental health and devise medical treatments. Like police officers and other officials, he checked under his car every morning for booby-trap devices. His dedication to his profession, scrupulous protection of patient confidentiality and even-handed compassion ensured, however, that he was widely respected. Bownes was born in Portadown and brought up in nearby Armagh, where his father, Noel, was a civil servant working on procurement and his mother, Margaret (nee Armstrong), a speech therapist. Ian was an only child. The background to his teenage years was the escalating violence of the Troubles. He loved photography and recalled being told off by soldiers for taking pictures of military vehicles – but persuaded them to let him keep his camera. Bownes attended the Royal school, Armagh, and arrived in 1974 at Queen's University, Belfast, to study medicine. The following year he met Sharon Geddis, a fellow medical student. They married in 1978 and subsequently had six children. His time as a trainee doctor in A&E at the Mater hospital in Belfast involved treating victims of explosions and paramilitary punishment kneecappings. One night Bownes attended to Phil Taylor, drummer with the band Motörhead, who had been accidentally dropped down a staircase in a drunken lifting competition after a concert; Taylor survived with a neck-brace. Bownes began specialising in psychiatry in 1980, studied at the Maudsley hospital in London, and served as a locum GP in West Belfast. He helped those suffering trauma after witnessing – or sometimes carrying out – shootings and bombings. He was well regarded in the community: arriving at an IRA street barricade once, he was recognised and waved through to carry on his medical work. In 1991, he became only the second consultant forensic psychiatrist in Northern Ireland. His view, derived from years interviewing those convicted of terrorist offences, was that many who committed such crimes had personality disorders and were exploited by paramilitary organisations. 'Ian had no fear at all about whom he should meet,' Geraldine O'Hare, a forensic psychologist and long-term colleague, said. 'He had a role to fulfil and that was his job. He was always great fun and very cheerful.' He was nonetheless modest and supportive of colleagues. He enjoyed solving the puzzle of finding the root cause of a problem and devising a treatment to resolve it. His expertise was highly valued. MI5 asked him to assess the mental state of the IRA informer Freddie Scappaticci. Bownes was hooded by intelligence agents and driven to a secret building to meet the man known by his codename – Stakeknife. When the hood was removed, the doctor recognised the location anyway. For a period he worked for the Tyrone & Fermanagh hospital trust in Omagh, and he met the US president Bill Clinton in the wake of the Real IRA bombing of the town in 1998 – the worst single atrocity of the Troubles. In hundreds of criminal trials, Bownes appeared as an expert witness. Among the more notorious was the case of the serial killer Robert Howard, nicknamed the Wolfman, who was jailed for life in 2003 for raping and murdering 14-year-old Hannah Williams in Kent. Bownes' critical assessment, that Howard targeted victims using a 'sophisticated grooming process' and his pattern of behaviour would be difficult to change, had unfortunately been overlooked in an earlier trial. Bownes wrote for medical publications about why suspects confess, abusive sexual behaviour, post-traumatic stress and other conditions. He was awarded the John Dunne medal for excellence and originality in psychiatric research in 1991. He also gave evidence to select committees of both the House of Commons and the Assembly at Stormont, stressing the need for a high security hospital in Northern Ireland to treat potentially dangerous patients. They still have to be sent to Carstairs in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Bownes retired in 2023 but continued consulting part-time. Away from hospital, he took pleasure in gardening, collecting antiques and geology. He is survived by Sharon, their children, Gareth, David, Philip, Felicity, Amy and Robert, and nine grandchildren, and his mother. Ian Thomas Bownes, consultant psychiatrist, born 6 January 1956; died 7 January 2025
