Staff at an immigration detention centre failed to raise concerns about the health of a vulnerable epileptic man before he died, an inquest has heard.
French national Théophile Kaliviotis died on 27 October 2024 in custody at Brook House immigration removal centre in West Sussex.
Horsham Coroner’s Court heard on Tuesday that Kaliviotis had a seizure and missed taking his epilepsy medication on four occasions before he died. The 26-year-old also had access to the drug spice before his death, the court heard.
Kirsten Heaven, solicitor for the family, told coroner Joseph Turner at a pre-inquest hearing that Kaliviotis was “vulnerable and mentally unwell” and “arguably he is made more vulnerable and unwell because of his detention”.
She said that staff at Brook House, which Serco runs for the Home Office, had “clearly” not complied with Rule 35 of the government’s detention centre guidance, which requires healthcare staff to escalate concerns to management if an individual’s health is being badly affected by their detention.
Ms Heaven added that it was “arguable that the adults at risk policy hasn’t been complied with at any point”. The policy balances the government’s need to detain people for removal with their vulnerabilities, such as physical or mental disability.
She argued that he wasn’t able to access the same medical care in detention that he could have had in the community, adding: “He is vulnerable, unwell, potentially has capacity issues, and there are illegal drugs floating around.”
Mr Turner said that the inquest would have to consider “what happened to him while in detention... including the medical care that he was or was not given”.
Mr Turner said that Kaliviotis “had a seizure and he died” but said what caused him to have the seizure was so far unknown.
Benjamin Seifert, representing the government, said that “the fact of Mr Kaliviotis’s detention couldn’t reasonably be argued to have contributed to his death”.
The full inquest into Kaliviotis’s death is set to take place in October 2026.
Brook House, which is near Gatwick, is used as a detention centre for people whose asylum claims have been rejected, those whose claims are still being considered, and foreign nationals who have served a sentence in a UK prison.
The removal centre, which has the same levels of security as a category B prison, has space for around 500 detainees.
While most detainees are held at the site for just a few weeks, some can be there for over two years.
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