Thomas Haigh was jailed for life for the brutal murders of David Griffiths and Brett Flournoy in June 2011. An investigation into his death at HMP Manchester has been launched
A convicted double murderer has passed away while serving a life sentence at Strangeways prison in Manchester. An investigation into the death of Thomas Haigh has since been launched.
Haigh was 40 years old when he died at HMP Manchester – better known as Strangeways – last month, the prisons watchdog has confirmed. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, which probes all deaths in prison custody, has published details of the case on its website.
Haigh – a former cage fighter originally from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire – was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 35 years in February 2012, for the savage murders of two gangland enforcers, David Griffiths and Brett Flournoy, in June 2011.
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Mr Flournoy, a former Merseyside boxer, was 31 and hailed from Bebington, Wirral. Mr Griffiths was 35 and from Bracknell, Berkshire. Both men were shot dead by Haigh using a shotgun at a remote farm near St Austell in Cornwall, before being buried, reports the Manchester Evening News.
During a four-week trial at Truro Crown Court, it emerged that Haigh, who was just 26 at the time of sentencing, owed the victims tens of thousands of pounds in drug debts.
The court was told that Mr Flournoy and Mr Griffiths had been pressuring Haigh into making another trip to collect drugs in Brazil when he carried out the killings. The sentencing judge at the time said Haigh was ‘attracted to the gangster way of life’ who ‘convinced yourself you were a big boy playing in the big league’. He said: “These were bad men but they were bad men with the right not to be killed because trading in drugs does not carry the death penalty.
“But I found your erratic behaviour made you unsuited to this elusive trade. This was no more than a result of your chosen lifestyle. You knew the rules of the criminal club you joined and you broke them.”
Haigh’s trial revealed that the victims were underworld enforcers working for an ‘IRA gang’ that controlled Liverpool’s illegal drugs trade. An accomplice who confessed to incinerating the bodies received a five-year sentence after being cleared of both murder and manslaughter. He had pleaded guilty to obstructing a coroner by illegally disposing of the bodies on his land – the farm.
Haigh, who fled back to West Yorkshire following the killings, voluntarily turned himself in to police in Huddersfield prior to his arrest and charge. He attempted to have his conviction quashed, but Court of Appeal judges deemed his appeals ‘unarguable’ and threw them out. That was in 2013. The judges did, however, reduce the minimum tariff Haigh must serve before being considered for parole from 35 years to 32 years.
The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman confirmed that an investigation was under way. Haigh’s date of birth and the date of his death – 15 March – has been published on its website, along with confirmation he died while a prisoner at HMP Manchester. The ombudsman said an investigation was ‘in progress’, but no additional details have been disclosed surrounding his death.
A Prison Service spokesperson stated: “HMP Manchester prisoner Thomas Haigh died on 15 March 2026. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.” No further details have been disclosed.
