Homicide detectives are investigating the death of a prisoner who admitted luring a nine-year-old girl from a park and indecently dealing with her at a nearby home.
Ashley James Bropho, 40, was found unresponsive in his cell at Perth's Hakea Prison just after 8am on Thursday, with staff at the Canning Vale facility providing first aid.
Paramedics also attended the scene but were unable to revive him.
Two units within the maximum-security prison were locked down as police began investigating Bropho's death.
The homicide squad is treating his death as suspicious and in a statement, WA Police said a number of male prisoners were assisting detectives with their inquiries.
Bropho was raised by his grandmother alongside Terence Kelly — the man who is awaiting sentencing for abducting four-year-old Cleo Smith from her family's tent in Western Australia's north.
The grandmother had taken in Kelly as a child because she said his mother had not wanted him.
While Kelly was being held in the maximum security Casuarina Prison, Bropho was in custody at Hakea jail, where he's been kept since his arrest in July 2022 on child sex charges.
Girl lured from park before escaping
Bropho was due to be sentenced in the District Court next week, after pleading guilty to luring the girl from a park in suburban Doubleview, near where he lived.
A court hearing on Tuesday was told he offered the girl a fast-food hamburger before taking her hand and walking her back to his house.
He took her to his bedroom where he kissed her, exposed himself and tried to get her to perform a sex act.
But his carer arrived at the home during the offences and the girl managed to escape.
Bropho wanted to 'get on with life': lawyer
Bropho's lawyer, Clint Hampson, said his client suffered from an intellectual disability and schizophrenia, but reports provided to the court said at the time of the offences he was not getting the level of support he needed.
Mr Hampson said Bropho had also told the report writers that while he wanted to remain in prison "to keep out of trouble", he was looking forward to getting out of jail and "getting on with his life".
The court heard Bropho had only previously been jailed once before, for six months, over an assault.
Mr Hampson told the ABC he was "saddened" to hear of his passing.
"He was a man who had a very difficult and traumatic upbringing," he said.
"He was navigating life with a significant intellectual disability and other mental health conditions."
The WA Major Crime Division is attempting to establish the circumstances surrounding his death and police will provide a report to the state coroner.
Hakea has around 900 inmates ranging from minimum to maximum security and is where the majority of remand prisoners — those awaiting trial or sentencing — are held.
'Tensions rising' at Hakea: union
In a statement, the WA Prison Officers' Union secretary Andy Smith said while he was unable to comment on the specifics of Thursday's death, it was a reminder of what his members faced every day.
"Tensions have been rising in Hakea Prison for several months now, with overcrowding and understaffing frequently reported," he said.
"In response, our officers have been forced to make adjustments to procedures in order to run the prison.
"Today's traumatic incident unfortunately demonstrates the risks prison officers face while doing their jobs in a difficult environment."
He said the union would support all of its members in the wake of the incident, and throughout the investigation process.
Bropho's death comes as prison officers in the Banksia Hill Youth Detention Centre next door walked out on the job in a dispute over pay and conditions.
In WA, there have been 10 deaths in custody so far in 2022-23, with eight of them categorised as apparent natural deaths, according to Department of Justice figures.
There were 13 deaths in the year before. Ten were categorised as apparent natural deaths.
