Two prisoners were killed by synthetic cannabinoids in the same jail.
and armed robber Kevin Sloan were both found dead in Castle Huntly, near Dundee, after taking so-called “zombie” drugs.
A Fatal Accident Inquiry at Perth Sheriff Court heard how Shields, 30 – who was preparing for freedom – was discovered in a
kneeling position “like he was praying” in his cell on October 2, 2017.
It was confirmed that the “designer” drug 5F-mdmb-Pinaca had killed him.
Shields was just months from completing a 14-year sentence. He was convicted of murder and jailed for life in 2004 for bludgeoning James Herd to death in the street with a metal pole.
Shields, then 15, jumped on his victim’s head “like a trampoline”. Sheriff Pino di Emidio continued the inquiry until next month.
A separate inquiry into the death of Sloan heard that he had died on February 27, 2016, as a result of an almost identical
synthetic cannabinoid.
Sloan, 31, had taken a combination of heroin and AKB48-N15, also known as hydroxypentyl.
He had been jailed for eight years for firing a shotgun in a post office robbery in Newton Mearns, near Glasgow, in 2011.
Further evidence will be heard next month.
