Doctor noted ‘unusual’ levels of methadone in man who died in cell

ONE of the doctors who carried out the autopsy on Mark Hutton said the amount of methadone in the prisoner’s body was “unusual” given the length of time he was in custody.

Dr David Sadler gave evidence yesterday to the inquiry into the death of Mr Hutton, who died while in custody at West Bell Street police station on March 5 2016.

Mr Sadler, a senior lecturer of forensic medicine at Dundee University, said there were three drugs found in his system – methadone, diazepam and tazalam.

Mr Hutton had been previously diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmia, a heart condition which made his heartbeat arrhythmic at times, but Mr Sadler said he could not determine if that was a factor in the tragedy.

The official cause of death was the combination of drugs in Mr Hutton’s system.

But this was only concluded after taking the prisoner’s medical history into account, and Mr Sadler admitted it would be difficult to say this was the case by just looking at the body alone.

The doctor was reluctant to say whether or not giving Mr Hutton water could have helped save his life. The prisoner had not been given anything to eat or drink during his 15-hour stay.

Mr Hutton had a 1.4mg reading of methadone in his system. Mr Sadler said this was higher than expected given the length of time he had been in custody.

He said the only explanations for this was that Mr Hutton took his methadone prescription later than expected, or “topped up” at some point later in the day or while in custody.

Sheriff Alastair Carmichael said he aims to have his determination completed by mid-December.