WHY WAS ‘AT RISK’ INMATE JAMES DUGGAN LEFT ALONE?

Published: 13 August, 2010
by JOSIE HINTON

AN investigation has been launched into the death of a prisoner who was left alone in a single room with a plastic bag and belt – despite being identified as at risk of self-harm.

James Duggan, 27, was found collapsed with a belt around his neck and a plastic bag over his head at Pentonville Prison in Caledonian Road, Holloway, last Wednesday.

Evidence at his inquest held yesterday (Thursday) showed that though prison officials were concerned about his health, he was moved from one wing to another with his possessions.

Prison staff performed CPR and he was rushed to the Whittington Hospital, but he died two days later. A post-mortem examination has given a provisional cause of death as “plastic bag asphyxia”.

Mr Duggan, a painter and decorator who was also a full-time carer for his mother, was being held on remand accused of assaulting two men during a family christening at the Exmouth Arms pub, in Exmouth Market, Finsbury, in August last year. 

He was due to appear in court later this month. At the start of the opened and adjourned inquest, the coroner at St Pancras Coroners Court stated that Mr Duggan had died in hospital on Friday, two days after attempting to take his own life. He had been found with a belt tied around his neck and a plastic bag over his head.

Jodie Duggan, his sister, described how her father had tried to visit Mr Duggan at Pentonville at 9am last Wednesday – half an hour before he was found in his room – but Mr Duggan failed to appear.  

She told the court: “Usually the prisoner is waiting for you when you get there, but he wasn’t there. I was told that someone had seen him at 9.05am and he was OK, but someone had gone back later and found him.”

She added: “They [the liaison officer] told me he’d been acting strangely on the Monday and on the Tuesday he was put on to the hospital ward with his possessions in a plastic bag, including his belt. He also had cuts on his arm. On the Wednesday he had been left with these articles and had done what he did. There was a belt around his neck.”

The court was told that during the previous day Mr Duggan had been moved from the segregation wing to the healthcare ward after concerns were raised about him. But following the move – known as a “planned intervention” – Mr Duggan was allocated a single room and allowed to keep a bag containing his possessions.

He was seen by a Quaker chaplain just after 9am, when he appeared to be fine, but healthcare staff found him collapsed on the floor less than half an hour later.

Mr Jonas Agypong, a duty governor, said that in response to an alarm of a “serious medical incident” several staff performed CPR on Mr Duggan. “I was told a member of staff had discovered him with a belt around his neck and with a plastic back over his head and he was lying on the floor of the cell.”

In reply to a question from the coroner he said that he did not know anything about medical records showing there was “something” in his mouth.  

As with all deaths in custody, an investigation is being carried out by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO).

Karen Johnson, a PPO investigator, told the court: “Our target for the completion of the investigation is 26 weeks to produce a report, which we will share with family members. The family’s concerns will form the basis of our investigation.” 

Police had conducted a long search for Mr Duggan, who they believed was involved in a fight that broke out in the Exmouth Arms pub in August last year. During the incident, two men – one aged in his 20s and the other in his 30s – sustained stab wounds. Both made a full recovery but police launched an appeal for information.