Philip Knight

Philip Knight was a bright 15-year-old White boy from Dyfed in Wales. His teachers were hopeful that he would go on to university.

Taken into care aged 13, he experienced a difficult childhood. Arrested in 1990 for petty crime, this was followed by a deterioration in his mental health.

Social services applied to the court for a 'Certificate of Unruly Character'. Unable to provide a secure place for him in a children’s home, Philip was remanded in Swansea adult prison.

The prison doctor, chaplain and officers deemed his acts of self-harm as "attention-seeking" behaviour. Abandoned by multiple agencies and after two weeks in prison, including a week in solitary confinement, Philip took his own life while awaiting to be transferred to specialist secure unit for children. At the time, in July 1990, he was the youngest person to have died a self-inflicted death in prison.

Philip’s case caused such a public outcry, the then junior health minister Stephen Dorrell was forced to admit that he should never have been in an adult prison at all. His avoidable death led to a widespread debate about removing children from the adult prison system and forced the government to bring in legislation that would eventually ban the practice.