Daughter settles legal claim against Government over father’s ‘degrading’ death

The daughter of a former firefighter and Royal Navy officer who suffered an “inhumane, degrading and undignified death” in prison has settled a High Court legal claim for a five-figure sum.

Melanie Kalay took legal action against the Ministry of Justice and the City Health Care Partnership, which provides health and care services, under the Human Rights Act over the death of her father, Alpha Kalay.

Mr Kalay, who was born in Sierra Leone, died aged 74 on January 19 2021 after contracting Covid-19 while serving a sentence at HMP Hull in East Yorkshire.

Law firm Hodge Jones and Allen, which represented Ms Kalay, said prison staff were aware that Mr Kalay was at higher risk from the virus due to his ethnicity and pre-existing health conditions, including incontinence caused by spinal nerve damage.

He contracted Covid-19 on January 8 2021, but when prison officers found Mr Kalay’s cell, bedding and clothes to be soiled, he was assumed to be staging a “dirty protest”.

Mr Kalay, who served in the Royal Navy for nine years, had disciplinary proceedings initiated against him for the assumed protest, which saw him placed in a segregation unit, and several opportunities to care for him missed.

He was initially put in a wellbeing unit before eventually being taken to Hull Royal Infirmary, where he was diagnosed with type one respiratory failure and a stage three acute kidney injury. He died five days later.

The law firm said a coroner found staff had repeatedly failed to correctly assess Mr Kalay, who was discovered “dehydrated, cold, confused, and unable to communicate while dressed in soiled clothes”.

Speaking after settling her legal claim, Ms Kalay, 52, said her father was treated “as a problem, not a person” and that she had been “traumatised by the extent to which he was let down”.

“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.”

She continued: “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.

“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.”

Hodge Jones and Allen said Mr Kalay had been jailed for four-and-a-half years following an “altercation with a teenager in a garden”.

Ms Kalay said: “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 at Hodge Jones and Allen, 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.”

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Our thoughts remain with Mr Kalay’s family and we are sorry that he did not receive adequate support in his final days.

“As the public will appreciate, the pandemic was an unprecedented challenge for prison staff trying to keep prisoners and their colleagues safe.”

A spokesperson for CHCP said: “We were deeply saddened to hear of the death of Mr Kalay, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.

“City Health Care Partnership CIC cannot disclose any details about the care of individual patients as this would be a breach of confidentiality, but if any serious incidents occur in our services, we do thorough and detailed reviews of what has happened and put any recommended improvements in place.”