Elderly prisoner died after hitting head on concrete floor at prison

An inquiry was launched into how Henry Stewart came to have bruises on his eye after he was taken to hospital from the prison following the fall, but there were found to be no suspicious circumstances.

However, practices for reporting an emergency at the prison have since been improved.

The 73-year-old died three months after his fall in the prison at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

The inquest heard that the cause of death was given as a chest infection, inflammation of the lungs and a severe traumatic brain injury during the incident that happened on July 19 last year.

Det Sgt Richard Callaghan, of Staffordshire Police, told the hearing(thurs) that staff at Stafford Hospital where he was taken in the immediate aftermath raised concerns about how Mr Stewart came by bruises to his right eye.

But he said a probe that involved interviews with prison staff and inmates had found there were no suspicious circumstances.

He told the hearing that Mr Stewart, who had been at the prison since 2010, had suffered a fall from a landing in Belgium in 2003 and had sustained skull and rib fractures as a result.

DS Callaghan said: "From these investigations I have not identified any other incident where Mr Stewart could have sustained these injuries.

"There was no evidence of an assault or any accident.

"There is no criminal activity associated with how he sustained these injuries."

Giving evidence the prison's healthcare manager Ken Smith said Mr Stewart was frail and had been given a lower bunk bed in a ground floor cell due to his health issues.

Staff were also concerned that he may have developed epilepsy due to his previous fitting episodes.

Mr Smith told the jury that when the inmate fell outside his cell on July 19.

"I noticed that his right eye was protruding. It looked like it was going to pop out of the socket," he said.

The inquest also heard that an urgent review appointment had been made for Mr Stewart to see a consultant neurologist in September 2013, but that the waiting times were long on average.

The inquest was also told that since the incident all staff at HMP Stafford had been briefed on the Prison Service's 'code blue' procedure that is used to swiftly radio for an ambulance when there is a medical emergency, after it emerged that the procedure was overlooked by the staff.

A report by the Prison and Probation Ombudsman found that despite the failure a prison nurse arrived on the scene almost immediately and an ambulance was called.

The jury returned a conclusion that Mr Stewart, from the Coventry area, had died October 1, 2013 as a result of an accident after collapsing as a result of an undiagnosed epilepsy.