A WIFE killer committed suicide in Greenock prison after losing his charity shop job and becoming depressed about his chances of being released from custody, a sheriff has concluded.

Richard Farquhar’s mental health declined after management at Gateside halted moves to prepare him for release.

A Fatal Accident Inquiry at the town’s sheriff court heard how Farquhar was aged 61 when he slashed his throat with a razor blade in the jail.

He had been given a life sentence after being found guilty in 2008 of stabbing his wife Anne to death during a row in a car on the A90 road near Aberdeen.

A High Court trial in Edinburgh heard how she had kicked him out of their home after he started an affair with her friend Karen Gordon.

But when Anne began seeing Karen's husband, Colin, Farquhar was furious and killed her in a jealous rage.

Sheriff Andrew McIntyre has now issued a judgment detailing his findings about how Farquhar died at the jail on March 14 in 2019.

He stated that in the months before Farquhar’s death, prison bosses were preparing him for release.

The killer initially 'loved' his placement at a charity shop but it stopped after a staff member started feeling uncomfortable with Farquhar when alone with him.

He told officials that he had been preparing the shop for Christmas and it 'triggered memories' about what he had 'lost' from being convicted of murder.

Prison staff stopped the placement and the moves to have him released from custody and he was also ordered to attend sessions with a psychologist.

But officials who sat on the prison’s risk management team - which monitored Farquhar - didn’t provide him with detailed plans on how he could resume work for his release.

The team also didn’t give him a timescale into when the psychology sessions would take place.

In his judgment, Sheriff McIntyre concluded that had these actions taken place then Farquharson’s death may have been avoided.

He wrote: “I have found that Mr Farquhar committed suicide following a decline in his mental health contributed to by his suspension from a community placement.

“In particular I have found that: delay, a lack of joined-up working and insufficient communication with Mr Farquhar all contributed to him becoming distressed by his lack of progress, and to opportunities to avert that distress being missed.

“I find that those omissions contributed to his death.”

Farquhar, who was serving at least 12 years in custody for the killing, had previously been diagnosed with anxiety and depression in 1981.

He also attempted suicide just three months after being sent to prison.

The FAI judgment tells of how in the months following the decision to stop his placement, when medical staff carried out assessments he had initially reported feeling depressed but later told them that his mood was improving.

Sheriff McIntyre said staff who had assessed Farquhar acted correctly and couldn’t be criticised.

However, he has recommended that prison risk management teams should keep timescales on the completion of tasks needed to ensure the release of prisoners from life sentences.

Sheriff McIntyre also recommended that prisoners are given 'accurate and timely information' about plans to release them from custody.

He also recommended that risk management teams who decide to end community placements in ‘adverse’ circumstances should include medical staff in their decisions.

Sheriff McIntyre said: “Taken together, if implemented, they should support those working within prisons in their duty to safeguard the wellbeing of prisoners.

“They should make it easier to identify and address risk thereby relieving the inevitable distress caused when unforeseen risks materialise with tragic consequences."