Jonathan Shotter, aged 45, formerly of Southampton, Hampshire, has died at an approved premises in Weston just months after being released from prison custody on licence.
Shotter was an entrenched offender who had amassed a criminal record of more than 50 separate convictions for over 150 offences, spanning violent assaults, weapons, domestic abuse, and public order incidents.
He was last sent to prison in 2024 following an incident at Plymouth railway station.
After being apprehended for shoplifting inside a station store, Shotter produced a knife and went on a rampage across the station premises.
During the disturbance, Shotter approached a five-year-old child, raising the blade directly to the child’s face and issuing verbal threats.
He then turned on other members of the public, pointing the knife towards them while shouting racially abusive remarks and issuing violent threats before being restrained and arrested by police.
Shotter’s past record was characterised by persistent violent conduct against family members and partners.
He was repeatedly convicted for physically assaulting his own mother, as well as accumulating multiple convictions for flouting court-ordered restraining orders intended to keep him away from her.
Court records documented convictions for assaulting and harassing several other female victims, alongside an incident in which he headbutted an on-duty police officer.
Following his release from his latest custodial sentence, Shotter was placed in designated probation accommodation at an approved premises in Weston, where he passed away on 25 August.
The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) has opened a formal fatal incident inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his death while under statutory community supervision, as required for all deaths occurring in approved premises.
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