Father sues Newfoundland and Labrador government for death of son in provincial jail

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A father in St. John’s, N.L., is suing the Newfoundland and Labrador government over his son’s death last year in the province’s largest jail.

A statement of claim filed last month by Jerome Flynn with the provincial Supreme Court alleges his son, Seamus Flynn, died after he did not receive timely medical care at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary in St. John’s.

The lawsuit claims Seamus Flynn was subject to “routine assaults and brutal conditions which made the facility uninhabitable.”

Will Hiscock, Jerome Flynn’s lawyer, said he and his client initially asked the provincial Justice Department to hold a public inquiry into Seamus Flynn’s death. When the department said no, they launched their suit.

Hiscock said Flynn would rather the government hold a public inquiry because it would shed light on the conditions inmates face at the jail, and it would hold the province accountable.

“This is a systemic issue,” Hiscock said in an interview. “It’s really a blight on our justice system the way that HMP has been run over the years.”

Seamus Flynn died on Dec. 2, 2023, after he was taken to hospital, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Justice Department told reporters that month. The department said it was a “sudden death.” Flynn was 35.

The statement of claim alleges Flynn “died from complications arising from being subjected to inhumane conditions and brutal assaults from facility staff.” It said Flynn was in “obvious need” of urgent medical care, but was instead left in his cell “unattended and unmonitored.” That care was either withheld or delayed, despite Flynn’s “several complaints of ill health,” according to the statement of claim.

“This strapping, healthy young man shouldn’t have died, if he had been give proper care, if he had been treated humanely,” Hiscock said.

Hiscock also pointed to reporting by CBC News in which Flynn had phoned a reporter and alleged he was badly beaten by guards on Oct. 11, about a month and a half before he died.

Hiscock said the case is still new, and he has not yet received a statement of defence nor any discovery documents from the provincial government. But there is a suspicion that the alleged beating may have “contributed to his weakened state that allowed him to finally succumb to what may have been a lung infection, or something else,” Hiscock said.

The claims have not been tested in court and the province would not comment on the suit’s allegations. The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary said Tuesday that it investigated the circumstances of Flynn’s death and found no grounds to lay charges.

The lawsuit says the Newfoundland and Labrador government is vicariously liable for the actions of the correctional officers and other staff at the penitentiary, and it seeks damages including funeral costs. However, Hiscock said the larger aim is to get Jerome Flynn some answers about his son’s death and to “shine a light on the kind of treatment that the inmates at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary have been receiving for years.”

The Canadian Press has spoken with several inmates at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary who said Seamus Flynn was beaten by guards in October of 2023. That month, the provincial Justice Department said there was “a disturbance” in the jail on Oct. 11, and that the facility was locked down.

“One inmate suffered minor injuries, and received medical attention,” department spokesperson Eric Humber said in an October 2023 email.

Richard Driscoll was an inmate and a representative for fellow inmates at the penitentiary when Flynn died. He told The Canadian Press in a December 2023 interview that jail officials told inmates Flynn died from the flu. He said a flu-like sickness had been going around the jail at the time, and several inmates had gotten quite sick.

Driscoll said Flynn was “assaulted very severely” by guards in October 2023.

Robert Belbin, who was incarcerated on the same range as Seamus Flynn, corroborated Driscoll’s account in an interview with The Canadian Press in January 2024.

Belbin said guards beat Flynn on Oct. 11, 2023, after a protest. “Seamus came out bloodied, and his face was swollen,” Belbin said.

“They dragged him out backwards,” to take him to a solitary confinement cell, called “the hole,” he said. People on the range could see his injured face as he was taken away, he said.

Belbin said Flynn was in the hole for about nine days. The range was in lockdown when Flynn came back because of the illness going around the jail, Belbin said. Flynn got sick some time after he was brought back to the range.

“He was throwing up,” Belbin said. “He couldn’t leave his bed, he could barely talk.”

Belbin said that Flynn tried to tough it out at first, but he ultimately began telling correctional officers that he was quite sick. The inmates on the range spoke up, too, Belbin said. On the day Flynn died, inmates could hear him struggling and choking in his cell, Belbin said. They began banging on their doors to get correctional officers’ attention, so they would do something to help Flynn, he said.

“He could have been rushed to the hospital sooner,” Belbin said. “When he left that range, he looked like a man who was going to die. That ain’t something you forget overnight.”

Her Majesty’s Penitentiary was built in 1859, and it’s among the oldest operating provincial jails in the country. Its rodent and mould problems are well documented, and conditions inside the facility have long been denounced by inmates, lawyers and politicians.

The jail houses medium and maximum security male prisoners, including long-term remands and those awaiting transfer to a federal prison.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 17, 2024.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press