An inmate found dead inside his cell is believed to have accidentally overdosed on a cocktail of drugs. Steven Gunn was caged after being caught breaking into an East Kilbride home and died months after he was sentenced.
The 41-year-old was found by staff at HMP Addiewell after he passed away in cell 26 of the jail's Lomond C wing. Prison guards were unlocking cells carrying out morning welfare checks but received no response from Gunn when they tried to rouse him from his bed in October 2018.
A fatal accident inquiry into his death has now heard he had taken unprescribed diazepam, phenazepam, alprazolam and mirtazapine shortly before he passed away, Glasgow Live reports.
A code blue alarm was raised to alert staff, but medics found no sign of life when they arrived on the scene.
In a written report published last week following a fatal accident inquiry at Livingston Sheriff Court, Sheriff John A MacRitchie explained that Mr Gunn had a history of drug abuse and staff suspected he was taking unprescribed medication. He was moved to Lomond C wing in an attempt to interrupt his access to the drugs just weeks before his death.
However, this was ineffective and a post mortem later confirmed multi-drug intoxication and ischaemic heart disease as the cause of his death. Prescribed methadone and pregabalin were also in his system. It found they unprescribed drugs had a respiratory depressant effect on Mr Gunn’s breathing placing further strain on his already diseased heart.
A prison offer later found a package containing unprescribed fast acting tranquilliser alprazolam tablets while clearing Mr Gunn’s cell. A police investigation failed to identify the source of drugs that led to the tragedy in October 2018, despite extensive investigations.
Sheriff MacRitchie's judgment explained: "From the evidence, Mr Gunn was assessed regularly by and engaged well with medical and prison staff in relation to his drug addiction. There were no indications that Mr Gunn had any thoughts of deliberate self harm.
"Mr Gunn had previously used unprescribed drugs in addition to his prescribed medication as he felt unable to refrain from taking such unprescribed drugs.
"On the day preceding his death Mr Gunn appeared to be in “good spirits” when meeting with family members. After this visit prison staff who interacted with Mr Gunn also assessed him as being his “normal self” and had no concerns about him.
"Mr Gunn had not consumed all of the unprescribed drugs available to him, in that the said alprazolam was discovered after his death in his cell. It is probable in considering the entirety of these circumstances that Mr Gunn had accidentally fatally overdosed in consuming the said unprescribed diazepam, phenazepam, alprazolam and mirtazapine."
Sheriff MacRitchie also found that no precautions could reasonably have been taken that would have prevented Mr Gunn's death.
He added: "The medical and general treatment of Mr Gunn was adequate. While the said unprescribed drugs should not ideally have been available to Mr Gunn in a secure prison environment, despite extensive police investigations the source of these unprescribed drugs taken by Mr Gunn and those found in his cell after his death could not be ascertained. "
Mr Gunn passed away in October 2018 after being jailed just 11 months earlier at Hamilton Sheriff Court for breaking into the property in East Kilbride in August 2017. Relatives of the couple in their 60s who lived there caught him red handed and pinned him down until police arrived.
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