A FATAL accident inquiry (FAI) into the death of an inmate at Greenock's jail more than three years ago is due to take place today.
Prisoner Martin McGhee was 44 years old when he died in custody at HMP Greenock on January 25, 2021, around a month after he was admitted to Gateside.
Mr McGhee, who was awaiting trial for an alleged serious sexual assault on a disabled man at Inverclyde Royal Hospital at the time, had been locked up for domestic abuse and bail breach offences in 2020.
According to Scottish Prison Service records, Mr McGhee's medical certificate cause of death was an 'incised wound of [his] left arm'.
His was one of two deaths at Greenock prison in 2021, and one of 53 deaths in custody in Scotland that year.
The FAI, before Sheriff James Varney, was scheduled to start at the end of July, and will continue on Friday.
READ MORE: Greenock man who died in police custody choked on crack cocaine, FAI finds
A fatal accident inquiry is mandatory following any death in custody and the purpose of the public hearing is to establish what happened and prevent future deaths from happening in similar circumstances.
The sheriff's determination, which will be published at the conclusion of the hearing or hearings, will include details such as the cause of death, time and location of the death, any precautions which could have been taken to avoid it, and any defects in any system of working which contributed to the death.
The Telegraph reported in March 2020 that McGhee had been convicted following a trial of a series of threatening and abusive behaviour incidents towards a woman in Greenock.
The trial heard that he had two previous domestic abuse convictions involving the same victim.
Days before the offender was set to be sentenced, Mr McGhee went to his ex-partner's house in breach of a bail condition to stay away - resulting in him spending his birthday behind bars.
In a separate prosecution, he had been charged with entering a patient's private room on Inverclyde Royal's J-North wing without his consent in April 2019, and getting into his bed before proceeding to carry out sexual acts on the alleged victim.
The case never proceeded to trial.
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