More than four and a half years after Steven (Pepe) Dill died in prison after suffering an asthma attack and pleading for medical assistance for seven hours his partner is continuing to fight for justice.

No-one has been brought to court to answer for what an inquest described as an ?absence of timely medical intervention? at the Prison Farm Facility in St. George?s in December 2001.

His long-time partner Lee-Ann Dill, of Pembroke, is determined to force those responsible for Mr. Dill?s welfare while at the prison to be brought before the courts.

An inquest in 2003 concluded the death of father-of-two Mr. Dill was preventable and that the 41-year-old had tried in vain to summon medical assistance for seven hours before dying of complications associated with bronchial asthma at the Ferry Reach facility.

The self-employed plumber had been jailed for possession of drugs and was due to be released just two months after his death.

A criminal prosecution into the circumstances of his death was ruled out by the Department of Public Prosecutions in early 2004 on the grounds that it would not serve the public interest.

The same year Home Affairs Minister Randy Horton announced there would be a public inquiry into the prison system and medical care of inmates.

The years have not diminished Ms Dill?s grief or determination for the judicial action she believes would have come immediately in any other western country.

?Seven hours is more than enough time for someone to have called an ambulance and get help,? she states.

?I do not want him to be forgotten. His children are still here, I?m still here. I still haven?t got over it. It hurts that they treated him like a ?nothing? because he was in prison. He was a good father and family man.

?I?ve tried for four years to get justice and it is always a struggle. I kept believing in the system. I felt justice would be served.?

She added: ?It was murder and they should not be allowed to get away with it.?

The pain Ms. Dill still feels is evident. She says she would have walked to the Farm Facility and given her breath to her late partner for those seven hours he tried without success to get assistance.

She said Mr. Dill?s mother Elizabeth Astwood and other members of his family ? including sons Jahkiel, 21, and Jahlario, 18 ? had given her loving support to cope even as they themselves dealt with their loss.

?Pepe is someone who was loved. He did not trouble anyone, he did not fuss or fight. He was always a good man, good to his children and to his mother and to me.?

When he was jailed, Ms Dill says she called the prison to make them aware of his asthma condition. She said: ?They knew about it. I used to think that it would all be under control because he was being looked after in prison, but not now.?

She said lawyer Saul Froomkin QC is still waiting for the Attorney General?s office to respond to a request regarding further legal action.

Ms. Dill said: ?It is not going to bring him back, but I do not want him to be forgotten. They should not be allowed to get away with it. A gun wasn?t put to his head but he was still killed. The people in charge of the prison should have been brought to court.

?It?s not right that just because he is in prison he becomes a ?nothing?. I still want justice. His sons still have a lot of anger in them because they know their father was killed in this way.?