Charles Pratt, 72, who was found guilty of 19 sex offences, had turned down the flu jab in HMP Leeds in October 2024 – but then caught the illness that led to fatal pneumonia
A monster rapist died just six months into his 27-year prison sentence from pneumonia after refusing a flu vaccination behind bars.
Charles Pratt, 72, had turned down the flu jab in HMP Leeds in October 2024 – but then caught the illness that led to fatal pneumonia.
The convicted sex offender was taken to hospital in late November 2024, spending a week there before being discharged on December 6. But his condition worsened and he was readmitted on January 7, 2025. He died two days later.
A coroner concluded that Mr Pratt died from natural causes during an inquest held on January 28 last year. An investigation by the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman (PPO) has now found that he had received the treatment he could have expected in the community.
The report found that the treatment Pratt received was of a “reasonable standard and equivalent to that which he could have expected to”. The pensioner, from Skipton, was jailed in August 2024 at Bradford Crown Court having been found guilty of 19 sex offences, including multiple counts of rape against two women and a “helpless” child.
Police chiefs had praised the “immense bravery” of his victims whom he put through “harrowing” ordeals for decades at the time.
Detective Constable Neil Borchardt, from North Yorkshire Police, who led the investigation, said previously: “He used violence and threats, often while under the influence of alcohol, to carry out these attacks for his own disturbed sexual gratification. He adversely affected the lives of his victims who have had to endure extreme levels of trauma.”
During the court case in 2024, the court heard Pratt would laugh and ridicule his victims as he raped them. Sentencing Pratt, Judge Ahmed Nadim said: “The damage that you have inflicted upon each of your victims is immeasurable.
“They are deserving of the gratitude of this court and society as a whole for the courage they’ve shown in reporting you to the authorities and in bringing you to justice, and in the process re-living the most painful of memories.”
Pratt was also convicted of one count of attempted indecent assault against a child. The court heard on one occasion he punched a woman in the stomach, causing her to need hospital treatment.
Another vulnerable victim, who was punched and kicked as well as suffering extreme sexual assaults, attempted to take her own life.
The court heard that Pratt was of previous good character but that that was only because previous complaints made against him in 2011 did not lead to prosecution.
Judge Nadim added: “In short Charles Pratt, you are a violent and callous man. In order to meet your perverted sexual needs, you do not recognise and respect any societal or moral boundaries. As a result of your conduct three lives have been blighted.”