Birmingham church stab accused 'died of insulin overdose'

A man accused of a triple knife attack at a church took a fatal overdose of prescribed medication despite having overdosed previously, an inquest heard.

John Delahaye, 46, was on remand after a church elder and two other men were injured during a service at the New Jerusalem Apostolic Church in Aston in September last year.

Mr Delahaye was pronounced dead at HMP Birmingham on 5 March.

A jury inquest into his death is taking place at Birmingham Coroner's Court.

Mr Delahaye, a type 1 diabetic, was found by staff in his cell lying on his back with an empty insulin pen nearby a week before he was due to stand trial, an inquest jury heard.

He had been recently assessed and cleared to be given a pen despite taking an insulin overdose in the prison on New Year's Eve.

The jury also heard how he had overdosed on insulin in 2015 and reported feelings of isolation, depression and feeling "on guard" to medical staff.

Sharon Whyte, a community psychiatric nurse at the prison, said she believed an assessment care in custody teamwork book (ACCT) - used to monitor inmates who have self-harmed or are a suicide risk - would provide the support Mr Delahaye needed.

But Martin Harrison, a mental health nurse at the jail, told the jury he had already "slipped through the net" in getting access to consultant psychologists when he first arrived at the jail in September.

They would have been able to give more detailed care and treatment, he said.

The court also heard from Mr Delahaye's brother Kevin who described him as fun-loving, but had become "paranoid about people around him" and was in the process of changing his legal team ahead of his trial.

Consultant pathologist Dr Simon Trotter gave the cause of death as "a profound lack of glucose and hypoglycaemia".

"Given he had a pen before being locked up and it was empty when he was found I consider this was due to an insulin overdose," he said.

The hearing continues.

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