A Prison and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) report has raised concerns over the clinical treatment for a paedophile pensioner who later died.

John Edward Corran was jailed for 11 years in April 2021 after sexually assaulting two young girls but passed away three years into his sentence.

An inquest held in April concluded he died following a gastrointestinal haemorrhage.

Corran, 77, was handed the 11-year prison sentence in April 2021 after he attempted to rape two girls and committed a number of indecent assaults. The victims were girls aged between six and 12 at the time of the offences.

The inquest heard how Corran had a number of health issues having smoked up to 60 cigarettes and drank eight units of alcohol every day for years prior to his jail sentence.

As a result, he suffered from diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure.

Corran complained of being unwell on November 6 last year having previously had a biopsy over concerns he may have prostate cancer.

His condition worsened and he was taken to Noble’s Hospital on November 9. Doctors wanted to carry out an emergency endoscopy on Corran but his condition was too unstable. He passed away on November 12 last year.

A postmortem confirmed Corran died as the result of gastrointestinal haemorrhage with underlying health problems a contributing factor but not the cause of his death.

In concluding Corran’s death was due to ‘natural causes’, Coroner James Brooks said: ‘I am satisfied appropriate care was provided at Noble’s Hospital.

‘I provide no finding of neglect, and his death was due to the normal progression of a natural disease.’

However, while the PPO found no non-clinical failings in Corran’s care, concerns were raised over his medical care.

The report says: ‘The clinical reviewer concluded the clinical care Mr Corran received at Isle of Man Prison was partially equivalent to that which he could have expected to receive in the community.

‘She found that when Mr Corran was acutely unwell, specialist assessments and reviews were completed appropriately and in a timely manner.

‘However, she was concerned there was no clinical governance framework in place to help ensure practice, policies and procedures were evidence-based.’

The report recommended that clinical leads within Manx Care should ensure healthcare staff have the ‘appropriate competencies’ to the level of care they are providing for acutely ill or deteriorating patients, in line with clinical standards across the British Isles, including NEWS2 score for assessing patients at risk of deterioration.

In response, Manx Care said: ‘We have developed a comprehensive action plan to address the recommendations made.

‘The National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2) is primarily designed for use in hospital settings and, as such, is not routinely used across all community healthcare services. However, its use is expanding in certain areas—particularly where there is a need to monitor acutely unwell individuals and strengthen clinical escalation pathways, as highlighted in the PPO report.

‘Although NEWS2 has not been routinely implemented within our prison healthcare services to date, we acknowledge the importance of this recommendation. We are committed to implementing NEWS2 and will ensure that all relevant staff receive the necessary training.

‘Full implementation will follow the completion of this training to support early identification of clinical deterioration and ensure robust response protocols are in place.’