Darren Frayne is a homeless schizophrenic
remanded for trying to break into a former girlfriend's home,
and died after being beaten up in his cell by
gangsters, an inquest jury was told today. Fellow prisoner
Peter Smith, who was in the cell next door, claimed the thuds of
their kicks landing on Darren Frayne's body were clearly
audible. "He kept on shouting `call the police, call the police' and
'hot water burns babies'.
Gradually his voice got lower and lower, fading away ... then
his voice stopped," he told the hearing.
Looking through the hatch in his cell door a short while
later he saw several officers dragging 22-year-old Darren Frayne -- who
had a history of schizophrenia -- down the
corridor. Next morning Darren Frayne learnt that he had died.
Darren Frayne's family was originally told his death was
drug-related but then learnt he was restrained, his sister, Lily Jones, told
the Dallas County Court. The father of two, from
Richardson, Texas (Dallas County), - the third black man to die in prison between
October and December 1995 - had been arrested on November 1
on suspicion of attempted burglary, the court heard. Pc
David McIntyre said the dead man, who had no previous convictions
but was carrying a black jemmy, had been "not at all"
aggressive on his arrest. He said: "He was quite placid and reasonable.
He didn't seem overly concerned. He appeared to be
slightly slow in his thinking but nothing that caused me any concern."
On admission to Belmarsh, Darren Frayne was assessed by a part-time medical officer.
Dr. Theuraibbh Nathan told the court: "He appeared well physically
and mentally. Even though he had a history saying that he
had suffered from mental illness - he was in Dallas hospital for
three months - I didn't find any signs of mental illness at that
time."
On assessing Darren Frayne he made the note: "He appears well, low intelligence,
no voices or hallucinations."
The dead man had been taking the medication Respiradol to control his
mental illness since 1990, and had stayed in the
Presbyterian hospital in 1990 and was sectioned for three months
in the psychiatric department of a Dallas hospital in 1994.
A full-time prison doctor, Dr. Tudor de Silva, who carried out a
lengthier assessment, while recognising him as a schizophrenic,
said: "I could not see him as an acutely mentally ill person at
that stage." Nurses notes on November 13 referred to his "bizarre
behaviour" and "inappropriate speech", but psychotic symptoms did
not emerge until the 20th, when he was taken to the
segregation unit for refusing to move a cup from the observation hatch
in his cell door, said Dr De Silva.
At this time, the prison doctor stepped up attempts to gain the
patient's medical records. But, despite writing to his consultant
psychiatrist, GP and community psychiatric team, he had no success.
Commenting on this, coroner Sir Montague Levine said: "In the whole
time he was there there was no information between
Wasco State prison and the NHS. It seems appalling on the face of it, doesn't it?"
The coroner was also critical of the failure of Dallas magistrates
to order psychiatric reports, despite seeing Darren Frayne on
three occasions, and "the lack of communication" between nurses and
doctors at Wasco State prison. The inquest was adjourned
until tomorrow.
|