The twin sister of a man who suffered a massive brain haemorrhage while in prison believes that bullying from his friends caused his death.
Jason Jones, who lived in Tempest Road, Beeston, turned up at his sister’s house three days before he died, with a part-healed stab wound on his abdomen, swelling and a gash on the left side of his face.
The former roofer, 39, refused to go to hospital as he was wanted for failing to appear in court over an allegation he had broken a behaviour order.
But after Ms Jones directed police to his flat he was arrested, taken to hospital, then brought back to Killingbeck Police Station and later sentenced to two weeks in Armley Prison.
He collapsed in jail the following day and was pronounced dead at Leeds General Infirmary on February 5.
His sister Tracey Jones told the inquest into his death at Leeds Coroners Court yesterday (Sept 3) that “he looked like he was dying” after a beating from his “bully” housemate.
She said: “He looked like he was 90, he was grey, he wasn’t talking properly and he didn’t look properly.”
But between seeing him before his arrest and him being in hospital, she said her brother had sustained new injuries.
She said: “He was in intensive care when I saw him and I saw that Jay now had a black eye on his right eye – all the other [injuries] were on his left.
“Those injuries weren’t visible when I [first] saw him.”
Coroner David Hinchliff said Mr Jones, who had a long history of addiction to alcohol and heroin, was sacked from his job and began sleeping rough before moving in with drinking friends in Beeston in 2009.
But after a stint in prison he stayed with his sister to get off alcohol for 10 weeks and would visit her weekly to collect his benefit payment or get food.
Three men, aged 44, 39 and 34, and a 34-year-old woman were arrested in connection with Mr Jones’s death but were later released without charge.
An Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation into whether the police treatment was appropriate, will be revealed during the inquest.
The case continues.