The death in custody of a 33-year-old Sydney man has prompted renewed calls for greater transparency inside the NSW Corrective Services Department.
Adam Le Marseny, also known as Adam Grant Morrison, died of an apparent epileptic fit at Surry Hills Police Centre on May 27.
According to media reports, Mr Le Marseny was placed in custody the previous day after being charged with larceny, possessing goods in custody, and obtaining property by deception.
What happened after that is now the subject of a coronial investigation.
However, Mr Le Marseny’s inmates claim they witnessed him having a fit and tried to alert guards by pressing an emergency call button.
The inmates claim they were then told by officers: ”It’s 3.30am, go back to sleep.”
Mr Le Marseny was found dead at 7.30am.
Mr Le Marseny’s father was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald saying he had been told the emergency call button was working on the night of the incident, but had not been activated.
The windowless cells beneath the Surry Hills Police Centre can hold up to 90 prisoners, many of whom are waiting to be charged, or have been refused bail.
In November 2006 inmate Garry Kelso died from a cardiac arrest after being held for 29 hours in the cells.
Despite being in the throes of heroin withdrawal, Mr Kelso was not able to see a nurse before he died.
Following an inquest into Mr Kelso’s death, coroner Malcolm MacPherson recommended that more funding be provided for staffing at the complex, saying that the Department of Corrective Services was suffering from an increase in prisoner population.
A NSW Corrective Services spokesman said an autopsy and report into Mr Le Marseny’s death had been submitted to the NSW State Coroner, as was the standard practice following a death in custody.
“By law we can’t comment, we would be in contempt of the Act if we did comment,” the spokesman said.
Mr Marseny was the father of two children, Seith and Ebbany.
According to Mr Marseny’s still active Facebook page, he came from Springwood in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, and attended Winmalee High School, graduating in the class of 1993.
He was buried at Leura Memorial Gardens on June 9.
One photo on his Facebook page, dated April 30 this year, read: “This was the last picture taken of Adam, taken exactly 4 weeks before his passsing when he had come to stay for the weekend with his kids at The Entrance.”
Indigenous Social Justice Association president Ray Jackson urged the Corrective Services Department to install a recording system “that would not only record the date and time but also the record of what was said and by who”.
“Such information would be helpful to coroners during inquests as it would more clearly show the whole what-who-why of the process that is under investigation,” Mr Jackson told the GreenLeft Weekly newspaper.
“The buttons are there to call for help and this mainly occurs during the night or extended lock-downs.
“Yes, there is some inmate abuse of the system, but the majority of the inmates know that it is indeed a life saving tool.”
