Wayne Hunt struggled and yelled as Northern Territory corrections officers pinned him down, held him tightly by the head and put him in handcuffs and a spit hood, the inquest before Coroner Elisabeth Armitage has heard.
Mr Hunt was not given a full medical assessment after his seizure but put in an "at-risk" cell for observation, with prison officers believing he may have ingested illicit drugs, the inquest heard on Wednesday.
The 56-year-old was only days into a sentence for dangerous driving causing death when he had an epileptic fit at Darwin Correctional Centre on August 29, 2024.
After being held down by officers and sedated by a nurse, Mr Hunt was handcuffed, put in a spit hood and taken by wheelchair to an at-risk cell where he was found unresponsive the next morning.
He was rushed to hospital but died there two days later.
On Wednesday, a member of the jail's Immediate Action Team, known by their body armour as the Ninja Turtles, was shown his own body-camera footage of his team dealing with Mr Hunt.
The officer cannot be identified under an interim suppression order granted by the coroner to all prison guards and health workers appearing at the inquest.
The footage shows Mr Hunt with his hands cuffed behind his back, face down on a mattress on the cell floor moaning and yelling incoherently as he is held down by officers telling him to "calm down" and not to spit.
Cuts can be seen on his wrists where he struggled against the cuffs.
At one point he was asked if he had any drugs in him before he was lifted out of the cell and placed on a plastic chair, then a wheelchair to be taken to the medical centre.
Under questioning by counsel assisting the coroner Chrissy McConnel, the officer told the inquest he believed Mr Hunt may have been on drugs, perhaps Chronic, because of the erratic way he was acting.
He believed Mr Hunt's seizure episode was over by the time his team arrived.
The officer said that after consulting a nurse he removed a socket and sleeve for the inmate's prosthetic limb, Mr Hunt having lost his leg in a motorbike accident in 2008.
Another prison guard who gave evidence said Mr Hunt was placed in an at-risk cell to be TV-monitored overnight as a suicide risk.
But the guard said he overheard another officer ask: "Why is this man not going to hospital?"
The inquest heard from a senior officer on Tuesday it was his decision to treat Mr Hunt as an at-risk inmate rather than as a medical case, due to his non-compliant and erratic behaviour, which might be due to drugs.
In December 2022, Mr Hunt was driving his ute in a supermarket car park when he accidentally hit the accelerator and fatally pinned an 11-year-old boy against a wall.
He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death, earning three months in jail, but on release he was given another nine months when prosecutors appealed the sentence.
He was just days into the new sentence when he had his seizure.
11°C