Nick Armstrong, instructed by Kate Maynard of Hickman & Rose, acted for the father of Prince Fosu in this inquest which concluded on 2 March 2020.
The jury concluded that Prince had suffered “gross” and “inexplicable” failures of assessment and care, after his obvious psychiatric deterioration over six days was missed by four GPs, two nurses, two Home Office monitors, three members of the Independent Monitoring Board, and countless Detention Custody Officers and their managers. Prince did not eat, drink, sleep or put on clothes throughout that period. He lost 15% of his body weight. He was purportedly subject to a welfare check every 15 minutes but no-one responded to what they were seeing. Prince had had all bedding removed so had nothing soft to sit or lie on, and he was found, cold and stiff, on the concrete floor. The pathology evidence was that he died from the combined effects of psychosis, malnutrition, dehydration and hypothermia.
The case raises profound questions about the structure and safeguards in immigration detention, and why all individual professional responsibilities failed. As one of the IMB members put it in evidence, Prince died in plain sight.
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