A prison has been criticised after a York murderer and two others were able to kill another inmate and attempt to behead him.
A new report by the Sue McAllister, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, raised concerns about the length of time it took prison staff to intervene in the attack.
She also raised concerns “that management of the prisoners in the unit was insufficiently proactive and robust”.
Convicted killer Taras Nykolyn died after he was attacked by three other prisoners at the exercise yard in HMP Woodhill, among them convicted York killer James Brabbs.
Nykolyn was convicted of killing a cellmate in May 2015, and was later moved to to the managing challenging behaviour strategy unit (MCBS) at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.
He was allowed into the exercise yard with three other prisoners, James Brabbs, Stephen Boorman and Jibreel Raheem.
In her report, the ombudsman described the attack: “The gate was locked and two officers supervised from outside.
“Around ten minutes later, a prisoner punched Mr Nykolyn to the floor and all three prisoners continued the attack by kicking him, punching him, cutting him with improvised weapons and tying a ligature round his neck.
“The prisoners threatened to attack any officers who came into the yard. The attack continued for just over 30 minutes until officers entered the yard, dressed in protective clothing, and the prisoners surrendered.”
Nykolyn was pronounced dead in the air ambulance taking him to hospital.
In 2019, Brabbs, Boorman and Raheem were convicted of his murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The court heard they had tried to behead his corpse.
They planned the “ferocious” attack on the 49-year-old because he was “different”, “foreign” and had mental health issues, and so they could brag about it afterwards, a court heard.
Brabbs was already serving a life sentence for the murder of delivery driver Mohammed Saleem Khan, 36, during a bungled robbery in Easingwold in 2013.
Brabbs, formerly of Carnot Street, York, stabbed his victim in the neck as he delivered shower products.
His sentence for the murder of Nykolyn was ordered to run concurrently to his existing stretch, meaning he will be eligible for parole when he is 72 years old.
Razor blades
In her report Ms McAllister wrote: “We do not consider that staff could reasonably have anticipated that the other prisoners would attack and murder Mr Nykolyn.”
But she wrote: “We are concerned that in the week before Mr Nykolyn’s death, prisoners on the unit apparently received full packs of six razors, some of which were allegedly used to manufacture the weapons used in the attack.
“We are also concerned that further weapons – sharpened metal spikes – were found in two of the perpetrators’ cells after the attack, apparently made from shelf dividers taken from the prison library, and that cells in the MCBS unit do not seem to have been searched as frequently as local policy required.”
Taras Nykolyn died on 5 June 2018. He was 49.
The report goes on: “This was an extended and extremely brutal attack.
“Although it seems to have been pre- planned, I am satisfied that there was no information available to staff to suggest that Mr Nykolyn was at risk.
“However, I am concerned that while the mix of prisoners on the unit was clearly a dangerous one, all four prisoners exercised together, unlike the practice at other special units. In addition, there were weaknesses in some other aspects of security and risk assessment in the unit.
“I am also very concerned at the lack of co-ordination and urgency in the response once the attack on Mr Nykolyn began, and the fact that there was no contingency plan for an incident in the exercise yard.”
The report said around 32 minutes elapsed “between the start of the attack on Mr Nykolyn and staff entering the exercise yard to rescue him and that the perpetrators continued to assault him during this time.
“It appears that there was no contingency plan for dealing with any incidents in the exercise yard. We cannot say whether the delay affected the outcome for Mr Nykolyn, but we consider that it was unacceptably long.”
The MCBS unit at Woodhill has closed since Mr Nykolyn’s death.
The ombudsman made a number of recommendations to governors at other similar units, including more oversight of exercise groups and searching of cells.