JAILED WOMEN ON SEX ASSAULT CHARGE

NINE women at Cornton Vale Prison have been charged with physically
and sexually assaulting a new inmate during a violent search for drugs.

The alleged attack took place six weeks ago in Ross House, the remand
block, the day after the woman arrived.

A Central police spokeswoman confirmed that the nine - aged from 21 to
41 - had been charged and a report had been sent to the procurator
fiscal.

It is believed that hardened prisoners at Cornton Vale, desperate for
drugs, regularly perform intimate body searches, which even prison
staff are not permitted to carry out, on new arrivals. Such attacks
may throw new light on the spate of suicides at Cornton Vale, near
Stirling, where eight young women have killed themselves over the last
three years, the majority of them in the remand block.

It is understood to be the first time anyone has been charged with
such an assault in a prison although allegations about similar
incidents have been risked in English women's jails.

The most common way for drugs to be smuggled into prisons is by
packing them in a condom or the finger of a plastic surgical glove,
which is then inserted into the vagina and sometimes wrapped in mint
leaves to fool sniffer dogs.

Scottish Office home affairs minister Henry McLeish yesterday said the
incident was "an operational matter" for the Scottish Prison Service
and was now in the hands of the fiscal.

An SPS spokesman confirmed a remand prisoner had claimed she was
assaulted by other prisoners and that the police had been called in.

One doctor, who did not want to be named, said such assaults amounted
to rape and raised concern about the Scottish Office's new policy of
abolishing single cell accommodation, which it is introducing in light
of the rising death toll at the prison. "This is a risk when it comes
to sharing rooms," the doctor said.

"The idea that sharing rooms may reduce isolation needs to be examined
against this and the culture of homosexuality that exists."

The Scottish Office said its new shared cell policy followed
recommendations from the chief inspector of prisons, but acknowledged
bullying, particularly relating to drugs, was a problem. A spokesman
said a service had been set up to help prisoners report concerns.

A number of measures have been introduced at Cornton Vale - Scotland's
only female jail - to improve conditions, including increasing the
number of nursing and prison staff, improved cell observation and
offering televisions to women considered to be suicide risks. The
Scottish Office has also earmarked UKP40m to fund alternatives to
imprisonment for offenders.

The prison, which houses on average 190 inmates, is currently awaiting
the findings of a fatal accident inquiry into the suicide of
27-year-old Sandra Brown, who killed herself in her cell last December.


Checked-by: "Rich O'Grady"