Cold-blooded Blackpool murderer and former Gillespies pub landlord Mark Tindill dies in HMP The Mount

A “cool as a cucumber” murderer who strangled and stabbed his girlfriend to death moments before hailing a cab from Blackpool to Kent has died behind bars.

Mark Tindall brutally killed Blackpool Market stallholder Lisa Chadderton, 44, in the flat they shared above Gillespies, the pub he ran in Topping Street, Blackpool.

Tindill punched and strangled Ms Chadderton before stabbing her five times in the neck and once in the eye on November 27, 2017.

He hid her body in a utility room while her 18-year-old son slept nearby.

Tindall then changed out of his blood-soaked clothes – which he put in the washing machine – before calling resort-based C Cabs and asking to be taken down south.

On March 23, 2018 Tindall was sentenced to life imprisonment after admitting killing Ms Chadderton in a "drunken, jealous rage".

On Friday, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) published the findings of their independent investigation into his death at HMP The Mount in Hertfordshire. It follows an inquest into the killer’s death on September 8 this year where a coroner concluded that Tindill died from natural causes.

62-year-old Tindill died of a heart attack on May 9, 2023. Diabetes was listed as a contributory factor in his death.

The investigator issued notices to staff and prisoners at HMP The Mount informing them of the investigation and asking anyone with relevant information to contact her. They received several letters from prisoners who were concerned that Tindill’s dressings on his toe were not changed frequently enough, and that there were delays in the emergency response on the day he died.

Tindill had diabetes. He was prescribed insulin in the community but had stopped taking it. In 2018, he was was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy (nerve damage that causes pain, numbness and weakness) in both legs, caused in this case by poorly controlled diabetes. He started taking insulin again in May 2022.

After seeing a podiatrist in prison, Tindill was found to have an ulcer on the tip of his right big toe. It was and cleaned and dressed regularly. A few weeks later he suffered from chest pain and shortness of breath and was taken by ambulance to hospital. While in hospital, Tindill’s ulcer continued to deteriorate. He was diagnosed with osteomyelitis (infection in the bone) in his toe and cellulitis. Despite efforts by doctors to treat the infection with antibiotics, on December 6, 2022, Tindill had a partial amputation of his toe.

Over the following weeks and months, Tindill regularly had his dressings changed by healthcare in line with his care plan, the PPO report said.

Between March 17, 2024 and March 19, 2023, Tindill changed his dressing daily by himself, at his request.

On March 27, Tindill saw a podiatrist at the hospital. She told him a recent X-ray showed he still had osteomyelitis and he may need the remainder of his toe amputated. She also noted that Mr Tindill had a small ulcer on his third toe.

On May 1, Tindill spoke to a nurse as he was experiencing chest pain, nausea and vomiting. He was taken to hospital by ambulance and subsequently admitted. Hospital doctors confirmed that Tindill was having a heart attack. He had two stents inserted. Over the next week he was seen by the hospital’s diabetes nurse specialist and the healthcare team at The Mount once he was discharged from hospital.

The day he died

Shortly after 11am on May 9, 2023, a prisoner told an officer that Tindill was feeling unwell in his cell. The officer found him sitting on his chair in his cell. He had shortness of breath and chest pain and asked for an ambulance. The officer went back to the office to call an ambulance and a second officer went into Tindill’s room to support him.

At 11.08am, the officer with Mr Tindill radioed a code blue (a medical emergency code used when a prisoner is unconscious or having breathing difficulties that alerts staff in the control room to call an ambulance) as she was aware that Tindill had recently been in hospital for a heart attack and was concerned by his condition. An officer was already on the phone to the ambulance service at this time. As Mr Tindill was conscious, the call handler logged this as a category 2 ambulance and instructed the officer to update them if his condition deteriorated.

A nurse and an emergency medical technician (EMT) responded to the code blue at 11.18am. Tindill was sitting on his chair. He was responsive but was pale, clammy and clutching his chest. They took his clinical observations and gave him medication to help with his chest pain. The healthcare team and officers moved Tindill and his mattress into the corridor to give them better access to treat him.

An officer phoned the ambulance service at 11.43am to tell them his ECG reading and to request an update on the ambulance time. At 11.48am, the healthcare team were unable to find a pulse and a nurse started CPR.

The officer on the phone to the ambulance service told them Mr Tindill had gone into cardiac arrest and the ambulance was upgraded to a category one.

The healthcare team did CPR on Mr Tindill, and he began to breathe again. They continued to monitor his pulse which was very weak. The ambulance crew arrived at Mr Tindill’s side at 12.08pm. As they arrived, he stopped breathing again and they immediately started CPR. The paramedics moved him to the ambulance and continued CPR. While in the ambulance, Tindill’s condition deteriorated and paramedics agreed to stop treatment and declared Tindill deceased at 1.16pm.

The PPO report said the post-mortem report concluded that Tindill died of a heart attack caused by coronary artery atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries). Type two diabetes was also listed as a contributory factor.

The PPO inspector found prison staff attending to Tindill on the day he died failed to switch on Body Worn Video Cameras (BWVC) as is protocol when dealing with “incident related” matters such as incidents involving injury to or illness of a prisoner.

Adrian Usher, from the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, said: “At the time of Mr Tindill’s death, the CCTV on his wing was not working. This had been out of order since 10 April 2023 and the prison was waiting for a specialist contractor to fit new parts. (It was fixed on 23 May.)

“On 9 May, when the code blue was radioed for Mr Tindill, the staff who responded to the code did not turn on their BWVC. Therefore, there is no video footage of the emergency response. Although the lack of footage did not affect the care Mr Tindill received or the outcome of the incident, we suggest that those roles designated by the Governor as being required to wear a BWVC must do so while on shift and ensure that they record any incident that they attend, as per the policy.

“The Head of Safety told the PPO investigator that since the death of Mr Tindill, when a code blue is called, they now issue a reminder to staff to turn on their BWVC. We regard this as good practice.”

The clinical reviewer concluded that the clinical care Tindill received at The Mount was equivalent to that which he could have expected to receive in the community. She found that Tindill received good care for his diabetes and that the emergency response on May 9 was delivered well.

During Tindill’s appearances at Preston Crown Court the judge heard the publican had attempted to strangle another partner in similar circumstances a decade earlier.

A murderous escape

Back January 2019, The Gazette spoke to taxi driver Ian Morley when he was called to Gillespies on Topping Street, Blackpool, in the early hours of the morning, he had no idea the man he picked up was a cold-blooded killer.

Mark Tindill looked “cool as a cucumber” when he got into the 60-year-old grandad’s taxi, and even managed to sleep for most of the six-hour journey he paid for from Blackpool to Kent.

Mr Morley, who has worked as a taxi driver for 35 years, said: “Over the years you get a sixth sense, the hairs standing up on the back of your neck when you think somebody’s a bit off, but with this one I got no inclination, no feeling about anything. He just wanted to get to where he was going as quickly as possible.

“I think it was at 3.30am. It was just a normal Sunday night. I was parked up waiting for a job.

“I was called to outside Gillespies. There was nothing strange about it.

“He got in. He didn’t seem bothered or troubled. I started to make conversation with him and he very politely said that he had a lot of things on his mind, and if I wouldn’t mind not talking to him.

“At 3.30am, that usually means they want to go to sleep, so I decided to leave him alone.”

For six hours, Mr Morley drove with the killer in his back seat as they journeyed from Blackpool to Sevenoaks, Kent unaware of the chaos that was unfolding in the pub he left behind.

Ms Chadderton’s son, Mason, had woken up and found his mum missing – with signs of a struggle in the living room. Cushions had been thrown off the sofa. The curtains were covered in blood.

He rang his mum’s phone and heard it ringing inside the flat, along with the sound of Ms Chadderton’s beloved dog, Cookie, snuffling behind the utility room door.

Her injuries, a court was later told, had left her unrecognisable.

Paramedics were called, and police officers, cars, vans and horses swarmed the street.

The victim was ‘generous to a fault’

Well-wishers placed flowers at the door of the pub, the community rallied round her family and a fund-raising night was held at her favourite pub, The Duke of York.

The Dickson Road premises was packed for the event featuring eight singers who had all given their services for the cause and a host of fund-raising raffles were held with prizes donated by businesses and individuals.

Money raised went to the family and helped cover funeral costs.

In a statement, the family of Ms Chadderton - who was originally from Tredegar in south east Wales - said they were "devastated".

"She had an infectious personality.

"She was the life and soul of the party, always smiling and thinking of others.

"She was generous to a fault, often putting others before herself," the statement added.