A Merseyside man jailed for masterminding a heroin and crack ring was found dead in prison with experts unable to explain what happened.
Stephen Kearns, 37, was found unresponsive in his bed at HMP Stocken, in the East Midlands, on the morning of October 3, 2020. He had appeared fit and well the previous night, there were no signs of assault or restraint and no drugs were found in his system.
An investigation was carried out by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO), which published a Fatal Incident Report. According to PPO Sue McAllister: "A post-mortem was unable to determine the cause of Mr Kearns' death".
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Kearns, from Kirkby, posed as a motor trader but was jailed for 15 years at Plymouth Crown Court in 2013 after being convicted of flooding the Devon coastal town with crack cocaine, heroin and cannabis driven down from Merseyside. The then 30-year-old had been using the alias 'Scouse Shaun'.
The plot was uncovered by Devon and Cornwall Police as part of what they dubbed 'Operation Rio' in early 2011, in response to rampant drug abuse in Plymouth. Officers tracked more than a hundred car journeys between Merseyside and the south coast.
Kearns was described by the prosecution as one of the "main organisers" of the operation, and at one stage was observed on a Knowsley industrial estate where he had hired two storage containers.
In one raid police seized £175,000 worth of drugs stowed in a secret compartment inside a car registered to co-conspirator, Plymouth antiques dealer Wayne Harle-Stephens, sold to him by Kearns in February 2012.
Kearns was convicted of conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs alongside Speke brothers Eliott Barlow and Carl Barlow, Walton taxi-driver John Cavanagh, Harle-Stephens and several other lower ranking members.
According to the PPO report, Kearns was released from prison on licence on June 5, 2020, at the half-way point of his sentence. However, just two days later, he was recalled to prison on licence by the Probation Service after being arrested on suspicion of unnamed offences.
He was remanded at HMP Altcourse before being transferred to HMP Stocken on July 28. The report states: "At his reception health assessment at Stocken, Mr Kearns said that he had no health concerns, that he did not have any current problems with alcohol or drug use and that he had no thoughts of deliberate self-harm. The nurse noted her own observation that Mr Kearns appeared fit and well."
Kearns did get prescribed a new inhaler for his asthma by a nurse in August 2020, and had suffered some mental health concerns, but no serious medical issues were noted in his records.
On September 22, Kearns was told by his Prison Offender Manager (POM) and Probation Officer that they were recommending him for release after the charges leading to his recall were dropped, although the final decision would be for the Parole Board.
The Fatal Incident Report describes how Kearns told a fellow prisoner he was "very optimistic" that he would be released and was also pleased to have been moved from a double cell to a single cell.
The report described how on the day of his death, prison officers on duty had performed roll checks on Kearns' cell at 5.19am and 7.13am, which involved simply looking into his cell. On both occasions, the staff saw him apparently asleep in his bed and did not notice anything of concern.
However when an officer opened his cell at 9.04am and told him it was time for showers and telephone calls, Kearns did not respond. Ms McAllister wrote: "The officer told the investigator that Mr Kearns did not respond so she went into the cell, tapped his bed and said again that it was time for showers and telephone calls. She then looked more closely at him and noticed his skin looked blue."
The prison officers radioed an emergency code to the control room and began CPR, but Kearns did not regain consciousness. A prison nurse arrived within two minutes and paramedics at 9.37am, but they were also unsuccessful and Kearns was pronounced dead at the scene at 9.57am.
According to the report, the post-mortem found no evidence of assault or restraint. It stated: "The post-mortem identified some scarring to Mr Kearns’ heart muscle, together with an abnormally narrowed branch of a coronary artery with enlargement of a proportion of the muscle cells.
"The pathologist noted that these changes might have been linked to previous use of stimulant drugs. However, he went on to say that the pathological changes he had observed were not sufficiently severe to give this as a likely cause of death. Toxicology tests found no substances to account for Mr Kearns’ death."
A clinical reviewer found that there had been no opportunities for prison staff to intervene or save Kearns' life.
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