Hong Kong court hears psychiatric facility for prisoners temporarily short-staffed when remanded street sleeper fell into coma and later died

A Hong Kong psychiatric institution for prison inmates was temporarily short-staffed when a remanded street sleeper fell into a coma and later died, an inquest heard on Wednesday.

The Coroner’s Court was told that 54-year-old Le Van Muoi, who earlier accused police of abusing him, was found unconscious on the ground with his trousers around his neck while he was in solitary confinement at the Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre in Tuen Mun on October 8, 2020. He was later certified dead in hospital.

The homeless man from Vietnam was among a handful of street sleepers who had complained of rough treatment at the hands of police earlier that year at the Tung Chau Street Park in Sham Shui Po, where he had been camping out for almost two decades.

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Le was remanded in custody at the Tuen Mun facility in September 2020 awaiting a drug trial.

He was held in a cell lined with cushions and equipped with surveillance cameras in the admission and observation unit after he displayed self-harm tendencies, the court heard. The cell had no furniture.

Correctional Services Department protocol requires prison officers to inspect such inmates every 15 minutes.

But the guards at the centre said they could not conduct a regular check on Le in person on October 8, because their team was two men short that day either because of days off or an unforeseen operation to escort an ill inmate to hospital.

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Instead, guards relied largely on the surveillance system to remotely monitor Le and 19 others held in the same building

Prison officer Yau Wai-keung, who was in charge of camera surveillance that day, said Le appeared calm when he last visited his cell in person at 11.07am.

Yau said he was unaware a pair of trousers was wrapped around Le’s neck four minutes later due to grainy CCTV footage. Instead, he saw the inmate lying still and naked on the ground, as if he was sleeping, when he checked the footage at 11.22am and 11.37am.

“It appeared he had covered his upper body with some clothing to keep himself warm,” the officer said, adding that stripping was common behaviour among inmates with psychiatric problems.

Yau’s colleague, So Yan-kit, said he found Le had stopped breathing and was without a pulse when he entered his cell at 11.45am to collect a urine sample.

Le did not appear to have any dissatisfaction or grievances during his remand apart from complaining about an unfulfilling dinner, with the Vietnamese man served a larger portion of food the next morning, the officer said.

The two officers said they immediately attempted to resuscitate the inmate but to no avail.

The inquest before Coroner Raymund Chow Chi-wei and a five-strong jury is expected to last three days.