"Prison conditions are not good enough" says millionaire wife murderer
1:20pm Thursday 12th July 2012 in News
"Prison conditions are not good enough" says millionaire wife murderer
A MILLIONAIRE car dealer who was jailed for stabbing his wife to death has criticised the “poor conditions” in jail.
Ian Workman was ordered to serve at least 17-and-a-half years behind bars after a Crown Court jury unanimously convicted him of his wife’s murder in December last year. The 59-year-old plunged a carving knife through the heart of ex-wife Sue Workman at the £700,000 farmhouse they used to share in Edgworth.
Workman, who made his fortune through his car dealerships, is currently serving his sentence at Garth Prison in Leyland, but has complained of draughts and excrement on the walls.He and his wife were in the middle of a bitter divorce and wrangling over money when he stabbed her with a large kitchen knife in April last year.
Mrs Workman, aged 55, typed a live diary account of her former husband’s actions in their blazing row just moments before she was stabbed.
His son Grant, aged 25, a Lancaster University graduate, has made frequent visits to the prison to help his father lodge an appeal against the conviction.
Grant said: “When he moved in, the cell was full of excrement and he had no hot water to clean it.
“My dad had been in business for 30 years and he follows things to the letter of the law.
“He read the prison rules when he went in. The temperature in the cells should be a certain level and there should be curtains.
“When he sleeps at night there is a draught and there are no curtains. How is he supposed to sleep?”
Grant claimed his father’s appeal has been hampered because he is only allowed a limited amount of paperwork in his cell at any one time.
He is currently limited to four boxes in the cell which he is able to exchange for other boxes.
Grant said: “There is an appeal process in this country and he has to be allowed to do it.
“He should be allowed to appeal this with a fair and even chance, which means he needs to work on his case, which means he needs his paperwork.”
Workman has already failed in one appeal bid.
He insisted his wife stabbed herself during a struggle and told the Appeal Court in London a top pathologist’s “inferences and assumptions” led to his wrongful conviction.
But Appeal Court judge Mr Justice Haddon-Cave rejected Workman’s claims and said: “The jury were fully entitled to come to the verdict that they did.”
A prison service spokesman, said: “We do not comment on individual prisoners. Prisoners are provided with adequate time and facilities to prepare a legal defence, appeal or other legal work, including being given access to relevant legal documents.
“This must be carried out in a way that does not compromise the security or safety of both prisoners and staff.”
