A Canberra prisoner who collapsed and died in his cell had levels of methamphetamine capable of causing an overdose in his system, despite being on 23-hour-a-day lockdown, the ACT coroner has found.
Mark Anthony O'Connor was 29 when he died at the Alexander Maconochie Centre in May 2017. He had a long history of drug use, and had been using ice since he was 14 years old.
Prison officers were alerted when O'Connor's cellmate contacted them on an intercom line saying, "My celly has fainted" or "My celly's not breathing".
Medical assistance was rendered to O'Connor immediately, but he was unable to be revived.
Along with a potentially lethal dose of ice, other drugs were also present in O'Connor's system, leading coroner Glenn Theakston to find O'Connor died either of a methamphetamine overdose or due to a combination of the drugs.
"While there is a poor correlation between the level of methylamphetamine in a person's bloodstream and whether the drug causes death … the level of that drug in O'Connor's blood was capable of causing an overdose," he said.
The inquest did not look broadly at the issue of drugs in Canberra's prison, as Mr Theakston determined that was an issue best left to the Government.
A key conflict in the inquest was the evidence of O'Connor's cellmate, who gave conflicting accounts about what happened in the cell in the lead-up to O'Connor's death.
The cellmate, who was given the pseudonym Mr C, gave evidence at the inquest that neither he nor O'Connor had used drugs on the day of his death.
But a case management worker at the prison told the court Mr C had given a different account soon after the death, saying he and O'Connor had used ice.
He allegedly said he noticed O'Connor "was not doing okay" and got him to lie down, later performing CPR on him.
During the inquest Mr C denied making that admission and said it was not true, however Mr Theakston said he accepted the evidence of the case worker.
He noted Mr C had a clear reason to distance himself from the events leading to O'Connor's death.
The inquest did not determine how O'Connor and Mr C came to be in possession of the drugs, nor did it make adverse findings against any individual involved.
Mr Theakston also acknowledged the pain O'Connor's death had caused his family, including his son and his fiancee.
"Mr O'Connor was a relatively young man, who had expressed hope for the future," he said.
