Fellow inmates at the Prison Farm repeatedly told prison officers that Stephen (Pepe) Dill was suffering, an inquest into Mr. Dill's death heard yesterday.

And Mr. Dill, himself was so frustrated that he pushed down a prison door to get attention, and he warned that if he didn't go to hospital he would die.

Officers, however, testified that they did not see an emergency that warranted Mr. Dill going to the hospital.

And two prison officers, Nyal Richardson and Winslow Cameron testified that they had not been aware that Mr. Dill was a chronic asthmatic.

Mr. Dill, a Prison Farm inmate, died on December 19, 2001 after suffering a severe asthma attack at the facility.

The inquest has already heard that prison officers are given scant medical training and that Mr. Dill had pleaded for another asthma pump and to be taken to the hospital for hours before his death.

The on call nurse had been paged after 6 p.m. but did not arrive at the Prison Farm until around midnight when Mr. Dill had fallen unconscious.

At yesterday's session before Magistrate William Francis, more of the same testimony emerged as prison officers Richardson, Cameron and Divisional Officer Myron Galloway were led through their blow-by-blow account of what happened that night.

Statements from inmates Mark Jones, Calvin Eugene Patrick and Derek Huey, were read out in court.

Lawyer Saul Froomkin continued his questioning of Mr. Richardson when the inquest resumed yesterday.

Mr. Richardson said he did not know until the late afternoon of December 18, 2001, that Mr. Dill was an asthmatic.

He said he was an asthmatic himself and knew what it was like not to have a pump. But he testified that he was not aware that asthmatics can die when they don't have a pump. Mr. Richardson said he was aware that Mr. Dill had complained of his asthma and had been waiting for an inhaler pump for four hours.

He said he saw nothing unusual in that "because from what I understood there was no urgency - I'm thinking he just needed another pump."

Based on his own experience with asthma, he was not concerned about Mr. Dill's medical condition, he said.

Asked why, he told the Divisional Officer Mr. Galloway to page the nurse again if he was not concerned and he said he did not want Mr. Dill to have a severe attack in the early hours of the morning.

"An asthmatic can feel an attack coming on through the tightness of his chest and I wanted this guy to have his pump," he said.

He said that had he been aware that Mr. Dill had told Mr. Galloway that if he didn't get his pump he would die, he would "definitely" have been more concerned. And he said it was "slightly" unusual for the nurse to take up to six hours to show up after being paged.

Inmate Calvin Patrick said that he spoke with Mr. Dill soon after he returned from work release and that Mr. Dill kept saying that he needed his pump.

The pair shouted a few times to get attention, the statement to the Police said. "I told him in a joking way to lay on the floor and I'll pretend to do CPR. I was only joking. I was trying to get attention."Patrick continued: "They should have dealt with him when he complained about his chest and having to go down the hospital earlier in the day. Galloway should have followed up on what Pepe said, but he didn't."

Another inmate, Derek Huey, said in his statement that he knew Mr. Dill quite well and that he had told him that his asthma was worse than the average and he had to have his pump at all times.

He saw him on the night of December 18 trying to catch his breath, and wheezing. "He said his asthma was acting up and he might have to go to hospital... The way he was gasping for breath told me that he had to go to the hospital. He had told me if he didn't get to the hospital he would die."

Prison officer Winslow Cameron took the stand, and reading from his statement to the Police, described himself as a childhood friend of Mr. Dill, and said that he had alerted D.O. Galloway several times, starting from about 8 p.m. to call the nurse again.

"He told me he was suffering from asthma," he said. "He said `you guys better get me to hospital. You don't know - you better take me to the hospital.'"

Mr. Cameron said that Mr. Galloway's response was "I've already paged the nurse. What else do you expect me to do."

At around 8.30 that night Mr. Dill pushed down a prison door to get attention, he said. By 9 p.m. his eyes were "real glossy."

He recounted a conversation between Mr. Galloway and Mr. Richardson in which they appeared to dismiss Mr. Dill's complaints. And Mr. Cameron said he told them at the end of his shift that if they needed someone to take the inmate to the hospital they should call him and he would come back.

Under questioning from lawyers Delroy Duncan and Saul Froomkin, Mr. Cameron said his view was that Mr. Dill did not need to go to the hospital but that he needed to see the nurse.

He said Officer Richardson also did not think Mr. Dill needed to go to the hospital.

Under aggressive questioning from Mr. Froomkin, he said that he had used the word "wheezing" in his statement to the Police but really meant "deep breathing" and that in fact he had not observed Mr. Dill wheezing.

Asked if Mr. Dill had been begging him for help, he said: "No Pepe was not begging for help. I did not assess that he needed to go to hospital."

Mr. Froomkin got Mr. Cameron to admit that he did not believe any of Mr. Dill's fellow inmates when they said he needed immediate medical treatment.

He then admitted that his Police statement did not include some of his testimony in court - such as that Mr. Dill told him he was asthmatic and that Mr. Richardson had told Mr. Dill that he would get him a pump - but could not explain the omissions.

He said when Mr. Dill kicked down the door, he then went to Mr. Galloway and told him something was not right.

He said he had no idea what the procedure was if the nurse had never showed up and that he didn't know why another nurse or the prison doctor was not called when the nurse did not show.

Asked about his colleagues' - Officers Richardson's and Galloway's - attitude toward Mr. Dill's request to be taken to the hospital, he agreed that they did not believe Mr. Dill serious.

Asked why he did not respond, he said: "I tended to agree with what they were saying."

Inmate Mark Jones testified, through his Police statement read in court, that he had called Mr. Galloway to tell him about Mr. Dill's emergency.

Mr. Galloway had slammed the phone down and told him a nurse was on the way.

"Pepe looked tired and frustrated and worried. He told me not to leave his side - I assured him that I wouldn't. He also told me not to leave his side because he was afraid he won't wake up."

Mr. Galloway's testified that he believed that Mr. Dill had been abusing his medication when he said he needed a pump because he had only recently been given a pump.

"He didn't exhibit any symptoms of having an asthma attack," Mr. Galloway said reading from his Police statement taken two years ago.

The inquest continues with Mr. Galloway's testimony today.