MoJ settles five-year legal battle after ‘inhumane, degrading and undignified death’

The daughter of a former naval officer and firefighter who died in prison after staff claimed he was staging a ‘dirty protest’ when in desperate need of medical attention said she will never forget his ‘inhumane, degrading and undignified death’ as she settles a five-year legal battle with the Ministry of Justice (MOJ).

Melanie Kalay brought the claim against the MoJ and City Health Care Partnership after her 74-year-old father died when he was placed in isolation as punishment, while battling coronavirus.

An inquest into the death of Alpha Kalay – who entered HMP Hull with spinal damage and incontinence – found that staff had missed multiple opportunities to intervene despite knowing he was at high risk of catching the disease due to his ethnicity and pre-existing health conditions.

Expert evidence at the inquest at Hull, in January 2024, confirmed earlier treatment would have “significantly increased” the father of two’s chances of survival before he died in hospital in January 2021.

Coroner Ian Sprakes commented that staff failed multiple times to correctly assess his condition before he was found in his segregation cell dehydrated, cold, confused, and unable to communicate while dressed in soiled clothes.

Melanie Kalay, who was represented by lawyers at Hodge Jones and Allen, said: “For the last five years, I’ve had to read over and over again the harrowing details of how my dad suffered an inhumane, degrading and undignified death after staff failed to help him.

“Dad was an extremely clean person, so I was dumbfounded when I discovered they had continuously assumed he was making a dirty protest despite it being completely out of character. How can that be the first consideration when they knew he was suffering from Covid and so clearly needed urgent medical care? It was heartbreaking – he must have been in such an awful state.

“I understand that people may not have sympathy for prisoners, but my father was a first-time offender and had dedicated his life to serving this country as a sailor in the Navy and a firefighter. No one should be left to suffer in this way – he was treated as a problem, not a person.

“I have been traumatised by the extent to which he was let down. No one should have to suffer this treatment and no family member should have to live with the thoughts that I have endured, ruminating over his final days and the pain he must have suffered.”

Due to his pre-existing health conditions, Alpha was assigned a wing buddy to help with daily tasks and received visits from healthcare staff three times a week to help with personal hygiene. This arrangement was initiated from the start of his four-and-a-half-year sentence for an ‘altercation with a teenager in a garden’.

After his wing buddy tested positive for Covid, Alpha was placed in isolation on 28 December 2020, with all care and support abruptly stopped on New Year’s Eve.

Days after testing positive for Covid on 8 January, a prison officer treated the poor condition of his cell as a sign of a ‘dirty protest’ and initiated disciplinary proceedings, including moving Alpha to the segregation unit. The officer did not ask why Alpha had staged the assumed protest, ignoring national policy to do so.

Two nurses at the prison then failed to conduct a proper healthcare assessment of Alpha on removal to the segregation unit – contrary to policy – missing another opportunity to provide urgent care.

By chance, a nursing associate who had been involved in Alpha’s care began to question the validity of the assumption, which was at odds with his character, and requested a further health assessment after finding him in such appalling conditions.

Despite her concerns, he was not taken directly to the hospital and instead moved to a wellbeing unit for observation under the assumption he was still staging a dirty protest.

Alpha was finally taken as an emergency patient to Hull Royal Infirmary and diagnosed with type one respiratory failure and a stage three acute kidney injury. He died, five days later, on 19 January 2021.

Wellness coach and yoga teacher, Melanie, 52, said: “Dad worked hard all his life. If he wasn’t working, he was raising money for his home village in Sierra Leone. Dad was brought to England when he was just five years old by a missionary, leaving all his family and everything he knew behind. As he got older, he spent time trying to understand and connect with his heritage. I am so grateful he took that path, so I, too, can understand my heritage.

“I didn’t know that Dad was going to prison until the day he was sentenced. He was ashamed – he had never been in trouble before, so it came as a great shock to us all.

“He was close to finishing his sentence and had behaved well throughout, so I was preparing myself for his release, not for his death. It breaks my heart that his final days were spent like this, alone and subjected to multiple humiliations.”

Ruth Waters-Falk, civil liberties lawyer, who successfully brought the case against the MoJ and the City Health Care Partnership, said: “Our client has had to fight for justice for her dad at every step of the way through the inquest and now civil proceedings. She has bravely stood up to the relevant authorities, who so recklessly failed to appropriately care for her dad to the point that he was left in his own faeces.

“No one should have to experience that, and no one should have to read about that happening to their loved one. It is unbelievable to think that an elderly, vulnerable prisoner could be left in such degrading conditions.

“Our client’s civil claim was brought under the Human Rights Act, which enshrines in law the right to life and a prohibition on inhumane and degrading treatment. This law is there to protect everyone and ensures that members of the public can hold public bodies to account when they commit heinous acts and failures.”

Melanie added, “I am pleased we have settled the case and justice has been done, but it doesn’t take away the pain I have endured, nor will it wipe away my dad’s suffering, but I do believe he would be proud of me for standing up for what is right.”