Child rapist Brian Heron died during HMP Frankland sentence

Brian Heron, 78, died in hospital on January 14, 2025, while a prisoner at HMP Frankland in Brasside, near Durham city.

He was jailed for 15 years in August 2019 at Cambridge Crown Court, for two counts of rape of a boy under the age of 16, and five counts of indecent assault of a boy under 14.

Heron, of London Road, Peterborough, began the catalogue of abuse against the boy in 1980, Cambridgeshire Police said at the time.

He sexually abused the boy ‘hundreds of times’.

The first time it happened he told the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, that it would be ‘their secret’ and others ‘would be jealous if they knew’.

A report into Heron's death by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, published in June, noted the Coroner concluded he died of natural causes.

His cause of death was noted as respiratory failure caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection, on a background of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

An independent clinical reviewer found that the care Heron received at Frankland was of a reasonable standard – "at least equivalent to that which he could have expected to receive in the community" – and that his medical records contained evidence of "excellent individualised end of life care planning".

The PPO investigator found no issues of concern.

HMP Frankland is one of Britain's most high-security prisons, holding around 850 Category A adult male prisoners in Brasside, County Durham.

Opened in 1983, it is sometimes referred to informally as "Monster Mansion" due to the nature of many of its inmates' offences and has housed some of the UK's most notorious criminals.

The prison holds men convicted of the most serious offences, including murder, terrorism, and serious sexual crimes.