The seriously ill elderly mastermind of the £14million Hatton Garden heist has been hospitalised - where he is handcuffed to a prison officer, his children have said.
Brian Reader, 77, was moved out of prison following a recent stroke and his family have reportedly complained to the Ministry of Justice about the way he is being treated.
His son Paul, 52, and daughter Joanne Reader, 51, claim they have been prevented from visiting him in the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Woolwich, South East London.
Joanne told the Guardian: “I don’t want him to come out of there in a box. We are now extremely worried.”
They have reportedly written to Reader’s local MP Gareth Johnson, saying their father ‘is gravely ill, cannot walk unaided, cannot hear, has lost the sight in one eye due to a recent stroke and is handcuffed to a prison officer’.
They claim police and prison staff blocked them from visiting their dad in hospital.
Reader is currently serving a six year sentence after he was jailed in March, along with six others, for the audacious Hatton Garden burglary over the Easter weekend last year.
Reader, of Dartford Road, Dartford, Kent, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary last September.
His sentencing had to be delayed after a health scare earlier this year in Belmarsh Prison which resulted in him spending some time in hospital.
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Christopher Kinch said he took into account the fact that Reader is ‘seriously unwell’ and needs daily assistance with a number of routine tasks.
An MoJ spokesperson said: “We do not comment on individual prisoners. Security when prisoners are in hospital is assessed on a case-by-case basis. Public protection is always our number one priority.”