Prisoner killed himself after being told he could be deported

Ondrej Suha, aged 19, from Walsall, who has lived in the country since he was four, was discovered hanging in his cell at HM Brinsford Youth Offenders Institution hours after receiving a letter from the Home Office telling him he could be sent back to Slovakia.

He died four days later in New Cross Hospital on Christmas Day, 2015.

A six day inquest held in Stafford heard there were several prison failings in the lead-up to his death prompting his family to call for lessons to be learned.

Mr Suha had been remanded to HM Brinsford on September 12, 2015, while awaiting trial for burglary and assault after he sold property from his mother's house while she was on holiday and then slapped her on the wrist during an argument. On December 7 he pleaded guilty and was handed a 14-month jail term.

But prior to that on November 30 he had tried to kill himself telling prison staff he wanted to die. Mr Suha was placed on suicide watch but this was cancelled the next day by an officer who was unaware he had tried to take his own life, the inquest heard.

Then on December 17, after his conviction, the Walsall teenager witnessed his cellmate try to kill himself.

On the night of December 21, just before Mr Suha was locked in his cell until the next day, he was served with Home Office papers stating he was liable to be deported.

Later officers failed to get a response from the prisoner who had partially covered his cell window.

When staff got in they found him hanged, but it was around seven minutes until an attempt was made to resuscitate him and then the control room officer delayed calling from an ambulance, the inquest heard.

Ondrej’s sister Andrea Suhova, said: “Our family has been devastated by losing Ondrej.

"Knowing that more could have been done to protect him has only made our pain worse.

“Ondrej grew up in the UK and thought of himself as British through and through.

"We will never understand why the prison thought it was appropriate to give him that letter, knowing full well it was informing him he might be deported, before locking him away for the night.

"He had only recently tried to harm himself and told staff that he wanted to die.

“It is now so important that the prison service, and HMYOI Brinsford in particular, learns from Ondrej’s death so that other young people are safe and other families don’t have to experience the same pain as us.”

South Staffordshire Coroner Andrew Haigh confirmed he would be sending a Regulation 28 Prevention of Future Deaths report to the head of the National Offender Management Service on the back of the case.

Gus Silverman, from lawyers Irwin Mitchell representing Ondrej’s family, said: “The failures in this case are depressingly familiar from other prison deaths. Whether because of poor training, understaffing or simple lack of care HMYOI Brinsford failed to keep Ondrej safe.

“This inquest has also heard worrying evidence that the prison service considers it is appropriate to allow prisons to operate with only one member of CPR trained staff on duty at any one time.

"Ondrej’s family now look to the head of the National Offender Management Service to act on the concerns of the Coroner regarding this policy.

"Our society needs to ask itself how many more prisoners must die before prison safety is made a priority.”

The Prison and Probation Ombudsman also made several recommendations around at risk prisoners and emergency response procedures following Mr Suha's death.

Following the case a prison service spokeswoman said: “This was a tragic case and our thoughts are with the family and friends of Ondrej Suha.

“HMYOI Brinsford has already put in place a number of measures to better support the safety of offenders in custody. We will now carefully consider the findings of the inquest."