Nurse criticised at inquest into diabetic prisoner's death

A nurse has accepted that she did not provide appropriate medical care to a diabetic prisoner who died after being left on her cell floor for 21 hours after being restrained by four officers.

Lesley Watts was the duty nurse on call on the morning when Annabella Landsberg was taken to hospital from HMP Peterborough.

An inquest into the 45-year-old’s death heard that, after an urgent call to assess Landsberg, Watts arrived without medical kit and told her to “stop playing games”.

Alison Gerry of Doughty Street Chambers, representing the Landsberg family, asked Watts why she had not provided better care.

“You did not shake her. You did not say, Annabella, are you OK? You did not crouch down. What you did is remained standing and used your foot to push her. Is that a medically recognised way to assess a patient?

“You did not look into her eyes. You did not take her pulse, her blood pressure. You did not feel her to check what her temperature was. Is it fair to say you did not conduct a proper assessment?”

Watts said “yes”, and when asked how she was convinced that Landsberg was OK, she replied: “I don’t know. I can’t explain.”

Asked why she had not played back the events and tried to remember, Watts began to cry and responded: “I will remember that [afternoon] for the rest of my life.”

Landsberg was a type 2 diabetic and also HIV positive. She died on 6 September 2017 after being left on a concrete floor without medication for 21 hours.

On Friday, the inquest heard claims that Watts had said Landsberg was “pathetic” and “clearly faking medical issues” – claims that Watts denies.

Watts did accept that she had accused Landsberg of “playing games” while she lay unresponsive on the floor and that she believed Landsberg to be “pretending”.

Asked by the coroner Sean Horstead whether she was already convinced Landsberg was feigning injury or illness when she arrived, Watts replied: “It is possible, yes.”

A senior nurse, Gemma Niemiro was called to Landsberg’s cell “angry” she had not been called sooner. She told the inquest: “I remember becoming really angry … [when] I was told she had been on the floor for 21 hours. I had been at the prison since eight o’clock that morning and nobody had rang me. I just couldn’t believe it.”

Niemiro said prison officers were not taking Landsberg’s condition seriously. “They wanted me to believe she was faking illness,” she said. “They were telling me ‘you know what she’s like, this is just her.’ I turned to them and said, ‘Open that door, I will be the judge of that.’ They thought it was funny and I didn’t find it funny at all. It was completely unprofessional.”

Niemiro described Landsberg’s cell as “chaotic” and said Landsberg was lying on the floor with clothing and paperwork underneath her.

“Her head was going under the built-in desk. On the top of the desk were meals and [it was clear that] people had been stepping over her to put food on her desk.”

Watts and other officers claim they were unaware that Landsberg was HIV-positive and diabetic.

Landsberg was born in Zimbabwe but fled to the UK after she was the victim of a gang rape. Her body was repatriated to Zimbabwe and her funeral was held in Harare, after her three children were denied access to the UK for her funeral.

The inquest continues.