Supervision poor, but no one responsible for Perth bikie boss’ fatal cocaine overdose in lock-up: Coroner
Rebels bikie boss Jamie Ginn died from cocaine toxicity while being held at the Perth Watch House, a coronial inquest has found.
Supervision poor, but no one responsible for Perth bikie boss’ fatal cocaine overdose in lock-up: Coroner
Rebels bikie boss Jamie Ginn died from cocaine toxicity while being held at the Perth Watch House, a coronial inquest has found.
The 50-year-old’s sudden death while in custody on October 10, 2023 was subject to a mandatory inquest in November.
The Perth bikie boss’ death was probed at three-day inquest.Credit: Nine News Perth/Supplied
In releasing his findings on Monday, Coroner Michael Jenkin found there was no evidence that Ginn ingested the cocaine with the intention to take his own life, but he was unable to conclude how or when the drug was ingested.
Evidence given during the inquest suggested he may have ingested the cocaine in packaging shortly after his arrest, to avoid its detection while in custody, with the packaging then breaching inside his stomach.
However, no packaging was found during a post-mortem exam to support this theory.
Jenkin also found there was no evidence of criminality in relation to the death.
“In my view, Mr Ginn was appropriately assessed as a “general risk” detainee on his admission to the PWH, and he was the subject of an appropriate number of cell welfare checks. I am satisfied that Mr Ginn did not display any concerning behaviour until about 6.38 pm,” he said.
“I was unable to conclude (to the relevant standard) that the absence of a nurse at PWH at the relevant time contributed to Mr Ginn’s death, or that had a nurse been present, Mr Ginn’s treatment would have been different.
“However, the Cells Control Officer (who at the relevant time was responsible for “continuously monitoring” detainees at PWH) failed to notice Mr Ginn’s obvious medical event between 6.38 pm and 6.53 pm.
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“As a result, although I was unable to conclude (to the relevant standard) that this failure had caused or contributed to Mr Ginn’s death, I found that the standard of supervision Mr Ginn received whilst he was detained at PWH was poor.”
The night Ginn died, there was no registered nurse on duty due to someone calling in sick, but Ginn’s cell was able to be monitored through full-length windows and cameras.
During a regular cell check at 6.53pm, Ginn was seen having a seizure on the cell floor. His seizure went for around 15 minutes unnoticed.