Family question mental health care after death of man on Bibby Stockholm barge

The family of a 27-year-old Albanian man who died on board the Bibby Stockholm have questioned at his inquest how someone suffering from mental health issues could have been housed on the barge.

Leonard Farruku was found unresponsive in a shower cubicle on board the accommodation vessel at Portland Port, Dorset, on December 12 2023.

An inquest in Bournemouth was told that a post-mortem examination found that he died as a result of compression to the neck and suspension by ligature.

A previous hearing was told there were “no suspicious circumstances” surrounding his death.

Mr Farruku’s sister, Marsida Keci said in a statement written with her sister Jola, who both live in Italy, that they had a happy childhood in Albania, but their brother, whose nickname was Nardi, had struggled after the death of their mother in 2013 and their father in 2018.

She said: “Nardi started questioning why we had lost our mum in this way. He kept asking why this had happened to us, why we had such bad luck, and trying to understand what had led to our mum’s death.

“Nardi could not accept our mum’s death. We asked our dad to spend more time with Nardi and to talk to him, now he no longer had our mum to support him. We think he was having a really hard time.”

She said that Mr Farruku had then come to stay with her in Italy but appeared “withdrawn” and she arranged for him to see a psychologist when he returned to Albania but her brother had not wanted to continue therapy sessions.

Ms Keci said that after he came to the UK, he initially lived with two cousins but contact with him became more infrequent, particularly after he moved into a Home Office hotel.

She said: “During these few months, I noticed a gradual change in Nardi. Initially he seemed okay but after he had been at the hotel for a while, he seemed to be struggling.

“He told me he was having issues with the staff and found the hotel conditions very difficult. He was upset and seemed to be feeling down more.”

She added: “I had no idea he was later moved to the Bibby Stockholm barge.”

Ms Keci said that they had been informed that her brother had been given permission to work in the UK but added this news had not reached him on the barge.

She said that after August 2023, he did not respond to calls and messages and added: “We started to get more and more worried as no one could get in touch with Nardi.”

Ms Keci said that her brother was religious and suicide went against the beliefs of Muslims.

She said: “It just doesn’t make sense to us, Nardi was so young and he had so much talent, we can’t believe Nardi would kill himself.”

Ms Keci said: “We have so many questions that we need to know the answer to. We would like to know what help there was for people who were mentally unwell and why Nardi was moved to the barge when it seems his mental state was clearly not right.

“We need to understand how all of Nardi’s dreams and ambitions ended up with his death there.

“Nardi is gone and we can never bring him back and nothing can make up for that. We miss him every day.”

Describing her brother, she said: “He was a good man, kind, talented and ambitious.”

She said that he “had a talent for music” and played piano, accordion and organ and had won a scholarship to a music school which had made him “so proud and happy”.

Mr Farruku’s cousin, Edison Hakani said in a statement that his cousin had “begun to lose his smile” after the death of his parents.

He said that Mr Farruku arrived in the UK by boat from France and was processed by an immigration centre at Heathrow before he and another cousin, Mariglen Farruku, arranged for him to live with them.

Mr Hakani said that his cousin was then given a place at a hotel in Paignton, Devon, with the assistance of the Migrant Help charity after which they eventually lost contact with him in August 2023.

The inquest continues.