A Wallsend sex offender who indecently assaulted a teenage girl has died in HMP Durham after having an unrecoverable stroke, a new report has revealed. 

Simon Parkinson, 60, was jailed in 2023 after an adult woman reported him to the police, for having sex with her when she was only 14 or 15. 

Parkinson, who used to coach at a Tyneside tennis club, would "flirt" with the girl, causing her to become infatuated with him, before sexually abusing her.

The sex offender died less than three months into his four years and five months sentence. 

Parkinson had a stoke in his cell on the evening July 1, 2023, which left him unable to move one side of his body. 

A medical code blue (which triggers the prison control room to call for an ambulance and identifies the situation as an emergency) was called shortly after 4am on July 2, 2023. 

He was taken to hospital, accompanied by two officers at 5.30 am. He died in hospital five days later, on July 7. 

A post-mortem examination report established that Parkinson’s cause of death was aspiration pneumonia (an infection of the lungs caused by inhaling fluids or food) caused by a stroke, and an inquest concluded he had died of natural causes. 

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In a victim impact statement at Parkinson's sentencing in 2023, the woman he assaulted said: "I had not thought of it as a crime but as an adult, I decided it was time to tell someone the same happened to me. I had been told to keep it all a secret."

The woman said she later went on to take an overdose and turned to alcohol. She added: "When I was told he had pleaded guilty I was shocked, I just didn't think he would admit it. It had been a secret for so long.

"I was incredibly relieved not to have to go to court and convince 12 strangers I was telling the truth."