Paedophile bus driver at Durham Prison died days after victims came forward

According to a prison report published on March 1, 2021, Brian Daniels, 74, was jailed for 18 years after being convicted of a string of attacks on four young girls.

Daniels – formerly known as Brian Hildreth – was also handed a life-long sexual harm prevention order by Newcastle Crown Court.

The string of horrific offences included rape with the youngest victim being just five-years-old.

• Predatory paedophile Brian Daniels is likely to die in jail, court told

Daniels had been due to be released on licence in May 2020 but when confronted with new allegations from three more victims confessed to 11 historical sexual offences.

He received a six year and eight month sentence on September 21 – and died six days later on September 27, 2020.

The offences date as far back as the 1980s and happened in Sunderland and Newcastle.

Daniels, a former bus driver, died as a result of a stroke just days after he started the prison sentence.

He was found by staff in his Durham Prison cell on the hospital unit at the Category A prison.

According to the newly published Prisons and Probation Ombudsman report, into the fatal incident, the paedophile regularly refused food and medical treatments, including going to hospital.

The report states: “In 2020, Mr Daniels’ health deteriorated. A significant contributory factor was his increasing resistance to all forms of treatments, including refusals to go to hospital on several occasions.

“On 12 August, he agreed to go to hospital after falling ill. However, once there he refused treatment and said once more that he wanted to die.

"On 21 August, prison and healthcare staff met with hospital staff, including palliative care consultants at the hospital. Mr Daniels had requested that all care should stop, and his carers agreed that he had the mental capacity to make that decision. He returned to prison on 24 August, under a palliative care treatment plan (care with the focus on optimising the quality of life and reducing suffering).

“Mr Daniels died in the healthcare wing at Durham on 27 September at 4.38pm. There was no post-mortem examination as the coroner accepted the cause of death provided by a prison doctor, who recorded that Mr Daniels had died from a stroke. The doctor listed chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes as contributory factors.”