Man’s cries ignored by Samoan jail staff

A mentally ill Auckland man spent his last hours in a Samoan prison punishment cell pitifully crying out for his wife and children before being murdered, an official report has found.

None of the prison officers could be bothered to help.

The body of Hans Dalton, 28, was found upside down in a water barrel. His death was initially ruled a suicide.

Dalton was on holiday in Samoa when he was caught in a hurricane and lost access to his medication. On Christmas Day 2012, Samoa police, rather than help him, sent him to the notorious main prison at Tafa’igata, outside Apia, where he was thrown into a ‘‘pa sima’’ or punishment cell.

A commission of inquiry chaired by ombudsman Maiava Iulai Toma has emotionally recounted what happened.

The Samoa Observer published the leaked report yesterday, revealing severe criticism of the police and prison system.

Maiava says when Dalton arrived he ‘‘mumbled to himself continuously but otherwise he was not an active threat to anyone’’. Later he screamed loudly and shook the bars and punched the concrete walls.

‘‘It is clear that the mentally ill man had kept up his loud screaming and occasional swearing throughout the night.’’

He was ‘‘heard to call out ‘Lisa’, his wife’s name, to the deaf world around him.’’

‘‘How could the pitiful cries of an ill, for all intents and purposes, totally trapped human being yearning aloud desperately for the comfort of his wife and children, not be heard in the midst of assembled police manpower poised in readiness supposedly, to keep the community safe?’’

After it became clear Dalton could not have killed himself, another prisoner was charged with murder but was found not guilty. The Daltons in Auckland are suing the Samoan Government.