A watchdog has expressed its concerns after prison officers continued to try and resuscitate an inmate who was “clearly dead”.

Bill Bissett was found dead in his cell on the very day he was supposed to be released from Wymott Prison in near Leyland, Lancashire. The 88-year-old sex offender was jailed for six and a half years after he was found guilty of sexually abusing five boys in his care when he was a Boys’ Brigade leader.

Weeks before his release, Bissett was told he would not be allowed to go home to the house he shared with his wife following an “exclusion zone” being out in place to prevent him from bumping into any of his victims. Some of his victims lived close to the home including one who was just “streets away”.

In January, an inquest heard there was a lack of advance planning for Bissett’s release and this “may have contributed to his death”, LancashireLive reported. The jury concluded: “On 13 October 2023 at sometime between 00:00am and 05:10 am when found, William Campbell Bissett died by suicide as a result of hanging in cell 2-12 at HMP Wymott, 1 Wymott Drive, Ulanes Walton Lane, Leyland.

“A failure of advance planning prior to 5th Oct 2023 for accommodation for Bill on release and insufficient engagement with Bill by prisoner offender management and the probation service, may have contributed to his death.”

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman launched after Bissett’s death was delayed so the inquest could be carried out, but has since been published. It said there were issues around preparation for a prisoner’s release that had been raised by the independent monitoring board months before Bill died.

In May 2023, “some prisoners complained to [the monitoring board] that they were due for release imminently without knowing where they would live, although almost all were found temporary accommodation”, according to the ombudsman report. Before his release, Bissett was told he would be put in a Travelodge in either Preston or Chorley. His family expressed concern over his ongoing medical conditions.

The ombudsman’s report also revealed that Bill’s death was the 24th at Wymott in three years. Another prisoner was also found hanging on the same day, and died the following day, although the two deaths were not connected and the two inmates did not know each other. The ombudsman raised concerns about prison officers being allowed to continue to attempt to resuscitate Bill after he was found in his cell despite him being “clearly dead”.

Bissett was found dead in his cell at 5:10am on October 13, 2023. An emergency call was made five minutes later – another officer and a prison nurse arrived. The nurse told prison officer she though Bissett was dead, but CPR continued before the inmate’s death was confirmed at 5:40am.

The ombudsman’s report states: “When the nurse arrived at Mr Bissett’s cell, he thought that Mr Bissett was already dead and that CPR was futile. However, he let the officers continue with CPR until paramedics arrived and assessed that Mr Bissett was dead.

“European Resuscitation Council Guidelines (2015), which were shared with prison managers in September 2016, introduced new staff guidance about when not to perform CPR. The guidelines state, ‘Resuscitation is inappropriate and should not be provided when there is clear evidence that it will be futile’.”

The ombudsman has raised concerns about this to the prison’s head of healthcare and concluded: “Trying to resuscitate someone who is clearly dead is distressing for staff and undignified for the deceased. The nurse should have asked officers to stop CPR when he arrived.”

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