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March 18th 2019
ONE of Britain’s most notorious criminals has killed himself in his prison cell after battling mental illness.
Armed robber and suspected hitman Wayne Hurran, 57, was found dead in his cell at West London’s Wormwood Scrubs prison on Saturday morning.
Friends say Hurran’s family had pleaded with prison authorities for Hurran to be moved to a secure psychiatric hospital over fears for his safety at the Victorian prison where he was serving an eight-year sentence for a firearms offence.
Hurran – nicknamed ‘John Wayne’ because he always carried two guns – became public enemy number one in 1987 after shooting three police officers during an attempted robbery on a supermarket in Charlton, South East London, and going on the run.
The villain, of Islington, North London, was given sentences totalling around ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY years during his life of crime.
But he was dogged by mental illness throughout his life and on one occasion two charges of murder he confessed to were dropped because psychiatrists ruled he was mentally unwell.
Hurran is said to have voluntarily asked to go into temporary segregation at the Scrubs last week, before going back to the main jail block on D Wing to a single cell.
PRISON LETTER SPOKE OF SUICIDE FEARS
Lifelong friend and former Adams crime syndicate member Paul Tiernan said: “His family were worried sick about Wayne, physically and mentally.
“He was recently passing blood in and the family begged for him to be given hospital treatment. They had solicitors on the case.
“Wayne had a very long criminal history but had a heart of gold and was a good friend.
“He was the toughest loyalist friend a man could know. I’m devastated and ashamed of myself that I never done more to help him.
“He was a schizophrenic and mentally unstable.
“He should never have been in prison and should have been kept in a secure hospital.”
Tiernan, 56, said he received a letter from Hurran last month in which he had spoken of his concerns about young inmates killing themselves in prison.
There were 87 self-inflicted deaths in prisons in the 12 months to September 2017, up 12 per cent from the previous year.
In the 12 months to June 2018 there were 49,565 incidents of self-harm, up 20 per cent from the previous year.
LIFE OF CRIME OF ‘PUBLIC ENEMY NO1’
The dad-of-two hit the headlines after he shot Sgt David Hadaway in the leg, leaving him with lifelong injuries, and shot two more officers, PC Philip Rainford and PC John Healey.
Hurran was given sentences totalling 159 years for the shootings and 10 armed robberies at the Old Bailey in 1988, with a recommendation he serve 20 years.
Then in 1998 Hurran was charged with three murders he confessed to. He also told distinguished crime correspondent Jeff Edwards he killed a fourth man while on the run in Holland in 1987.
Murder charges onthe 1983 shooting of Gary Hutchings in Islington, and the assassination of South London doorman Frank Moody in 1987, were dropped after psychiatrists said Hurran was mentally unstable and his confession was unreliable.
Hurran is said to have barricaded himself in his cell before taking his own life.
A 5am inspection of his cell by officers failed to notice anything amiss, but when he was checked two hours later it was discovered Hurran had put obstacles up against his door.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “HMP Wormwood Scrubs prisoner Wayne Hurren died in prison on 16 March 2019.
“As with all deaths in custody, there will be an independent investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.”
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