The head of the Prison Officers' Association has admitted that it erred in not having legal representation at the inquest into the suicide of Westgate inmate Lorenzo Robinson.

Witnesses told the hearing last week that Mr. Robinson, who was severely mentally ill, may have been bullied and put in fear of his life by other inmates and prison officers. This was strenuously denied by the individuals in question and the Police said they found no evidence to press criminal charges.

Several of Mr. Robinson's fellow inmates, and one officer, also claimed they reported concerns about his welfare to the officer on duty on the day he hanged himself. The prison officer in question, Melton Taylor, denied that.

Questions were also raised about how 28-year-old Mr. Robinson managed to have contraband in his cell in the form of a home-made rope and batteries, which he used to hang himself from the ceiling.

He was incarcerated in Westgate after stabbing an American tourist in the back with a six-inch blade on Front Street in 2002. Robinson, a paranoid schizophrenic, claimed to have acted after hearing the voice of Osama bin Laden, and was later acquitted of attempted murder on the grounds that he was criminally insane.

The Supreme Court ruled four months before he killed himself last July that he should be in a secure mental hospital, not a prison, but Bermuda does not have such a facility.

Speaking out yesterday, Prison Officers' Association chairman Craig Clarke said: "My officers conducted themselves very professionally. They did all they could for Lorenzo Robinson who was deeply troubled."

Many of the allegations about the alleged treatment of Mr. Robinson at Westgate came out as the result of questions put to witnesses by Saul Froomkin QC, the lawyer representing Mr. Robinson's mother, Dedona Grant. The Government did not provide a lawyer from the Attorney General's chambers or the Department of Public Prosecutions to represent the prison staff.

Mr. Clarke said yesterday: "I felt it (the inquest) was an inquisition of my officers. I don't think Mr. Froomkin was trying to determine death but finding fault, maybe to proceed on something at a later date. I felt we should have had some legal representation there, probably the union erred in that. In future, if the (Government) would not send somebody we will pay for a lawyer for our officers.

"The AGs chambers made a call they didn't feel it was necessary to have a lawyer present, although the Commissioner and Department of Corrections requested representation."

Mr. Clarke said the officers had done their job to the best of their ability and he wanted a lawyer there "to protect them when people are up there asking questions suggesting they did something wrong."

Responding to his comments, Mr. Froomkin said: "I was rather surprised that neither the prison officers were represented, nor the Attorney General's chambers."