Prison manager never worried teen inmate Ashley Smith would attack him

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Eric Broadbent, a former correctional manager, is seen outside the Ashley Smith inquest in Toronto on Tuesday, May 28, 2013. Broadbent was testifying at the inquest into the death of the teenaged inmate, who died in segregation in Kitchener, Ont., in October 2007. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colin Perkel

TORONTO – A correctional manager says he never worried teen inmate Ashley Smith would hurt him.

Eric Broadbent tells the inquest into Smith’s death that he preferred to talk to her face-to-face rather than through a door.

Other staff complained when Broadbent, who is now retired, opened her segregation cell and went in to chat with the teen from Moncton, New Brunswick.

But Broadbent says no one complained to him.

He also says he had never seen anyone use ligatures to choke themselves before Smith transferred to Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, Ont., in May 2007.

Smith, 19, choked herself to death in her cell at the prison in October 2007.

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