A member of one of Britain's most notorious families, labelled "the neighbours from hell", has died in prison in after catching Covid.
John Pitt, whose parents and their nine children hit the headlines in the 1990s, died as he served a jail sentence at HMP Humber in East Yorkshire.
The Pitt's were dubbed Britain’s worst neighbours in a Channel 4 documentary, after his parents started a fire at the family’s home in Castle Terrace, Ashington, in a bid to claim £100,000 in insurance.
And John himself was a serial criminal with a history of violence, jailed for attacking a former partner.
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A judge had described him as "an obvious and gross continuing danger to the public", as reported by Hull Live.
Mr Pitt's partner had been tied up naked and threw herself 20ft from a window to escape him when he attacked her out of the blue at their home in Northumberland, trying to gouge her eyes out and threatening to cut her throat with scissors.
In July 2009, Mr Pitt was given a minimum four-and-a half year imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence for false imprisonment. He was moved to HMP Humber in 2019.
Now it has emerged that Mr Pitt died of Covid-19 on March 22, 2021, aged 53.
An independent investigation by the Prisons and Probations Ombudsman found that Mr Pitt had caught the disease in the prison during a 'significant outbreak' in February and March 2021.
The ombudsman said she was concerned that when Mr Pitt tested positive for COVID-19, healthcare staff did not take his clinical observations and he was not monitored to see if he became symptomatic.
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Mr Pitt was obese, which meant that he was at a higher risk of developing complications, and "should have been closely monitored and his observations taken regularly", the report says.
Mr Pitt complained about being unwell on March 2 but was told by a nurse to sit down to improve his breathing. The nurse then said they would return to check on him later.
But the report said Mr Pitt's condition and risk “should have prompted an urgent clinical response. The nurse did not return for over an hour, by which time Mr Pitt had got into bed because he felt so unwell, and then an ambulance was called”.
At hospital, Mr Pitt’s health deteriorated, and he was admitted to intensive care unit where he was put on a ventilator. He died almost three weeks later.
The report said there were also concerns Mr Pitt’s diabetes was not monitored regularly and there were no follow up checks or reviews documented in his clinical record.
Mr Pitt had a violent life along with an extensive criminal record, including numerous counts of assault, criminal damage, and drug dealing.
The report said he was the sixth prisoner at HMP Humber to die since March 2019, with one more having died since. Of the other deaths, one was drug-related, two were self-inflicted and three were from Covid-19.
Jailing him in 2009, Mr Justice Openshaw described Mr Pitt’s criminal record as “appalling”.
He added: “In my judgement he presents an obvious and gross continuing danger to the public and that danger it seems to me will continue for the foreseeable future.
“The terrible suffering sustained by the victim must in my judgement be reflected by the imposition of a substantial sentence.”
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