Strangeways’ spring of discontent
Reporter: Richard Hooton
Date published: 31 March 2010
“I DISTINCTLY remember prisoners being on the roof and slinging slates out of the air. They were coming very close to us. The general atmosphere was one of mayhem. It was frightening.”
Grotton’s Barry Owen had a ringside seat to the Strangeways prison riot of 20 years ago — and his memories vividly recall the iconic images of inmates storming the roof.
As he looked back on the 20th anniversary of the riot that began on April 1, 1990 — the worst prison violence Britain has ever seen — Mr Owen recounted his involvement in a piece of history.
Now the chairman of supporters’ group Trust Oldham and the fans representative on Oldham Athletic Football Club’s board of directors, Mr Owen was one of the first senior police officers on the scene of the riot.
He was then a superintendent with the Greater Manchester Police X Department, which operated the Tactical Aid Group. He retired four years after the riot.
Strangeways was built in 1868 and was designed to hold 953 inmates — but by 1990 was holding 1,600 men, some three to a cell.
There were complaints about food and staff brutality and in the overcrowded, tinderbox conditions trouble was brewing.
The riot broke out in the prison chapel during a morning service attended by 300 prisoners. After one grabbed a microphone and began shouting about the brutality of prison staff, fighting began.
Chaos ensued as prisoners stormed on to the landings and used keys to liberate other inmates, before vandalising the jail, beating suspected sex offenders and taking to the roof. Hundreds of inmates wanted no part and were evacuated.
Mr Owen (63) told the Chronicle: “My memories are very vivid. I was called out on the Sunday morning to a reported disturbance at Strangeways prison. I shot down there and went to see the Governor and the assistant chief constable.
“You could hear the riot going on, it had just started that morning.
“It was quite strange really. I will never forget that most people at the time were concerned with getting people into prison and my main objective was getting prisoners out of there.
“A lot of the prisoners that were in danger in there were passive and not taking part and had to be taken out.
“I can always remember the coaches that were lined up to take the prisoners out of Strangeways. They were marched out the front door and on to coaches and transported to different prisons.
“I remember thinking we would get it under control in the next few hours.
“I went in the second day without sleep and it was still unresolved. It went on for 25 days.”
Mr Owen was interviewed on TV on the first night, which highlighted the crisis to the nation.
There were fears that a massacre had taken place inside. But there were only two fatalities — an exhausted prison officer who fell ill and died in hospital and a suspected sex offender battered by other prisoners.
A steady stream of surrenders caused the rioters to dwindle until prison officers broke through to the roof on April 25 and the last rioter surrendered.
Repairs and improvements to the prison cost £120 million and 23 prisoners received jail sentences totalling 140 years for their part.
Mr Owen said: “I can’t believe it was that long ago. It seems like yesterday to me. Some incidents stay with you, others don’t, but it was the unique nature of it. You knew you were taking part in something that was not a regular feature of life.”
