The family of dead prison inmate Steven 'Pepe' Dill is planning to sue for damages and has called for a full inquiry after an inquest found his death was caused by a lack of medical attention.

Mother of the 41-year-old Prison Farm inmate, Elizabeth Astwood, fought back tears at the Coroner's Court yesterday as the seven-strong jury found that had Mr. Dill been given medical help sooner, he would certainly have lived.

The father-of-two was four months away from being released from the Prison Farm in December 2001, when he began to suffer a chronic asthma attack.

The court heard that despite repeated calls for a new asthma pump or to be taken to hospital, prison officers did little to assist Mr. Dill over a seven-hour period.

When the duty nurse finally did arrive at the prison close to midnight, the sick inmate had fallen unconscious and was showing no signs of life. He was officially pronounced dead an hour later.

Yesterday, after the jury read their verdict to the court, Mrs. Astwood said the case would not stop there.

She had fought for almost two years for answers as to why her son died, and she said now someone had to pay.

The family want damages for Mr. Dill's sons, Jahlario, 15, and Jahkeil, 18, but they also want a full inquiry into the failures in the prison system that led to his death.

"We are going to sue," said Mrs. Astwood.

"We are going to take action due to the negligence of the officers that were working on the watch over that time, and the prison system for failing to provide adequate care.

"There were so many holes in the policies and procedures of the prison system. The money does not matter to us, but (Steven) has a 15-year-old child to be taken care of, and we don't want this to happen to anyone else.

"The prison service should be made to pay."

Members of the jury kissed members of Mr. Dill's family as they left court yesterday afternoon, and passed on their condolences for their loss.

Their verdict had brought an end to the searching by the family, who had feared from day one that they would never get answers as to why Mr. Dill had died.

The jury foreman, after returning to the Coroner's Court following about an hour's deliberation, said: "The jury, having listened to all of the evidence as brought forward in this inquest, we are of the opinion that Steven Mansfield Dill died at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital on December 19, 2001, at 1.10 a.m. as a result of the absence of timely medical intervention for the complication of bronchial asthma, which was possibly exacerbated by poly drug abuse."

The court had heard how Mr. Dill had traces of heroin in his system the night he died, which could have made his asthma condition worse.

He had also used his asthma pump too frequently, which could have worsened the illness. However, a doctor told the court that if he had been taken to hospital and placed on a nebuliser, his system could have been cleared.

Coroner William Francis had told the jury it was not their job to lay blame at anyone's door for the death, but simply to determine why he had died.

The inquest heard that although Mr. Dill was breathing heavy, wheezing and even having difficulty walking, none of the prison officers believed him to be in distress, and instead said they believed he may have been faking illness just to get out and go to hospital.

He had first raised the alarm about the asthma attack just after 5 p.m., but it was some five hours later when contact was finally made with the duty nurse - and even then, she was only told he wanted a new pump. His symptoms were not passed on.

When she got to the farm two hours later, it was too late.

However, it was also revealed during the inquest how prison officers had little or no medical training, not even in first aid, and yet, were expected to assess inmates and pass on information for the divisional officers to take action when they were sick.

But even the senior officers had very little training.

Mr. Dill's brother, Raymond Rawlins, said yesterday that it was imperative now that Government held a full inquiry as to what went wrong and why.

"After this, I feel that some inquiry should come into effect as we can all see that it was pure neglect that caused Pepe's death," he said.

"Prison officers should be given full medical and first aid training - especially with the number of inmates they have to look after.

"I have been stunned at some of the things that have come out of this case, particularly the fact that nobody took my brother seriously. The only people that listened to him were other inmates.

"But most of the prison officers didn't even know he had a serious asthma condition. There has to be an inquiry now into the policies and procedures because things have to change as a result of this.

"This should not happen to anybody else. We want Pepe's death to be an example to prison officers that this cannot happen again."

At the end of the inquest both Mr. Francis and lawyer for the prison authority Delroy Duncan expressed their sympathies to the family.

Mr. Duncan said: "On behalf of the Prisons Commissioner and the prison officers here, we would like to express our condolences and sympathies to the family.

"They are extremely sorry about the death of Mr. Dill."

And Mr. Francis said: "We want to take this opportunity, on behalf of all of us, to express our condolences and sympathies to you (the family) for this untimely death."

And he said the prison service wanted to join with everyone in passing on condolences for "this very unfortunate situation and to say we hope that something like this will not happen again."