Daughter wins claim over dad’s Covid death after HMP Hull errors

The daughter of a man who suffered an “inhumane, degrading and undignified death” due to prison errors 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 (CHCP) over the death of her father, Alpha Kalay.

Kalay died aged 74 in January 2021 after contracting Covid-19 while serving a sentence at HMP Hull.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We are sorry that he did not receive adequate support in his final days”. A CHCP spokesperson said they reviewed serious incidents and would “put any recommended improvements in place”.

Kalay, who was born in Sierra Leone, was serving a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2019 following an “altercation with a teenager in his garden”.

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

There were various failures in terms of Kalay’s care after he became unwell, including a failure to recognise that a so-called “dirty protest” in his cell was actually a symptom of Covid-19.

He was eventually taken to Hull Royal Infirmary, where he was diagnosed with respiratory failure and an acute kidney injury. He died five days later.

Speaking after settling her legal claim, Ms Kalay, 52, said over the last five years she 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”.

She continued: “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.”

Ms Kalay said her father was “close to finishing his sentence” and “had behaved well throughout” and she was preparing “for his release, not for his death”.

Ruth Waters-Falk, civil liberties lawyer at Hodge Jones and Allen, praised Ms Kalay’s dedication.

She said: “She (Ms Kalay) 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.”

Ms Waters-Falk also said it was “unbelievable” that an “elderly, vulnerable” prisoner could be left in “such degrading conditions”.

A Prison Service spokesperson apologised for Kaley’s death and said they had not provided “adequate support in his final days”.

They added: “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 they were “deeply saddened to hear of the death of Mr Kalay”, and said they carried out “thorough and detailed reviews” of serious incidents.