TWO Gwent policemen accepted they failed in their duties as custody sergeants at Newport’s central police station, in the hours before a 22-year-old man died after a night in a cell.

And an inquest into Newport man Andrew Sheppard’s death in custody was told he most likely took the drugs subsequently found in his body while being held overnight, despite being searched on arrival.

Mr Sheppard, detained shortly before 10pm the previous day, was found unconscious in his cell at 10.39am on October 1, 2006, and later pronounced dead in hospital.

Sergeants Andrew Massaro and David Morgan, custody sergeants when he was brought in accepted, before Gwent coroner David Bowen and a jury, a series of failings.

Asked by Paul Bowen, representing Mr Sheppard’s family, if he accepted he failed in his duties “conscientiously and diligently” to ensure Mr Sheppard was roused every 30 minutes, necessary under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act in the case of intoxicated detainees, Sgt Massaro answered “Yes”.

He also accepted other failings including not conducting a full risk assessment, failing to determine he was a suicide risk; failing to record he was a risk prisoner; and failing to arrange that an ‘appropriate adult’ – a social worker or family member – be found for him.

Sgt Morgan accepted he and Sgt Massaro had joint responsibility, and he had failed in his duties in respect of that, andmatters accepted by his colleague.

Mr Sheppard was arrested on September 30, 2006, after behaving irrationally and showing signs of paranoia after taking drugs.

Earlier that day he discharged himself from the Royal Gwent Hospital, where he had been taken after cutting himself with mirror glass, taking painkillers, and threatening to take more drugs.

An exact cause of death could not be determined, but Home Office pathologist Dr Stephen Leadbeatter concluded it was “a sudden death of indeterminate cause in a young man who had taken cocaine and dihydrocodeine (a painkiller)”.

The jury heard from forensic experts who concluded that because of the levels of drugs in Mr Sheppard’s body at the time of his death the drugs had to have been taken while in custody.

Proceeding