Diabetic inmate ‘died after being restrained by staff and left on cell floor’

A diabetic prisoner died after staff physically restrained her then left her lying on her cell floor for around 21 hours before an ambulance was called, an inquest heard.

Annabella Landsberg was asked to stand up so she could be given medication in her cell at Peterborough Prison (pictured) on September 2 2017.

The inquest in Huntingdon heard that she did not and was then physically restrained after an officer said that Ms Landsberg grabbed her leg.

The 45-year-old mother-of-three was left on her cell floor until an ambulance was called the following afternoon, the hearing was told.

She died in hospital on September 6.

Prison officer Amy Moore said she had asked Ms Landsberg to stand up on September 2. “She said her legs didn’t work so she couldn’t stand up and she was reaching for the sink,” she told Friday’s hearing.

Ms Moore said Ms Landsberg was “kicking her legs”, and she believed the inmate was “trying to be difficult for staff”.

Prison staff opened her cell to try to give her medication but Ms Moore said Ms Landsberg tried to push herself on to the landing.

“When I stepped over her she grabbed my leg with both arms,” said Ms Moore.

A second female officer activated her personal alarm, two male officers arrived to help and the four of them brought Ms Landsberg under control at around 6pm, the inquest heard.

Ms Moore said that when she started her shift the next morning she was told Ms Landsberg “had been lying on the floor all night but she had been seen moving and breathing during the night”.

She said Ms Landsberg was “mumbling incoherently”.

Ms Moore said she called duty nurse Lesley Watts, who is due to give evidence later in the inquest, shortly before 11am to “advise her that she was still lying on the floor”.

Ms Moore said that Ms Watts “said that she felt Ms Landsberg was attention seeking so she wouldn’t attend” and that Ms Landsberg was “clearly faking medical issues”.

Ms Moore said she called a senior prison officer shortly before 3pm as Ms Landsberg remained in the same position, appeared to have wet herself and her breakfast remained uneaten.

Ms Moore said that Ms Watts said she thought Ms Landsberg was “wasting staff’s time” and when she attended the nurse told the inmate “get up” and “you’re pathetic”.

“She (Ms Watts) took a cup of water out of the sink, threw it over Ms Landsberg and said ‘you haven’t wet yourself – you’ve don’t that’,” said Ms Moore.

Ms Moore said that a second nurse attended and “quite quickly, she said she (Ms Landsberg) was in a bad way” and an ambulance was called. The inquest, listed to last up to four weeks, continues.

Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2019, All Rights Reserved. Picture (c) Chris Radburn / PA Wire.