Ryan St George with his aunt Margaret

THE New Journal starts 2025 by calling for answers on behalf of the family of a brain-damaged man who died choking on food.

Relatives of Ryan St George – who had already been the victim of catastrophic negligence by the UK prison service for which he received compensation – want to know why there was no inquest into his death despite the painful and unusual circumstances.

The lack of information has added to their distress but it is almost impossible to ask direct questions of the coroner system – a fact-finding process founded in ancient times and one where the coroner still wields huge power without facing the same public scrutiny as the heads of other services.

They rarely take questions from committees of MPs or even councillors, and requests from the press can go unanswered.

It is now nearly six months since the New Journal asked St Pancras Coroner’s Court why its ­coroner Mary Hassell had not ordered an inquest into Mr St George’s death at his home in Kentish  Town, but still there has been no explanation.

His aunt, Margaret St George, who is in her 90s and acted as his carer for years, has contacted Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town and Hampstead and Highgate MP Tulip Siddiq hoping they will help in seeking answers.

Ryan St George was unable to speak after being left brain-damaged at Brixton prison

When the New Journal visited Margaret St George last week she showed us files of lawyers’ letters and correspondence asking for his death in July 2022 to be looked at again.

They even include a message to King Charles to inform him of what had happened. “He didn’t need to die that day, he wasn’t well but he could have lived for another 10 years or more. Who knows?,” she said.

“We need to know what happened on the night he died. Why hasn’t there been an inquest? Why won’t the police look into it any more?”

The New Journal reported last summer that the Met was investigating but officers have since told the family that they will not be taking the case any further.

This has only led to more questions as to why the full circumstances are not being investigated in the open forum of a coroner’s inquest.

St Pancras Coroner’s Court has looked at other cases of people choking on food in the past, but there has been no answer as to why one was not scheduled in Mr St George’s case.

He could not prepare his own meals or feed himself after being left unable to control his movements or even speak after he cracked his head in a fall from the top bunk of a bed in Brixton Prison in 1997.

The government later paid £3.9million in compensation to cover his future care after shocking failures to get him the emergency aid he needed were revealed in a long-running legal case.

He had been jailed for the simple crime of stealing batteries from a shop – a charge for which he would now be unlikely to be sent to prison.

Having been through the long fight for compensation – largely led by his late father David St George, the former Old Bailey crime reporter – his relatives now find themselves in a similar legal maze.

Ryan St George before the scandal at Brizton Prison

Ms St George was in hospital herself on the night her nephew died and it was one of the rare times in 25 years that she was not by his side.

Instead a private carer from United Health UK was sent in. The care company referred the New Journal to Camden Council for comment, which in turn said it did not comment on behalf of the company.

Mr St George had been struggling with laboured breathing through the night and not drinking properly on the day he died. Paramedics said in a report following his death they had to remove a “grey mass of soft food tucked to [the] right side of [his] oesophagus” before they could start resuscitation.

St Pancras coroner Mary Hassell has not held an inquest into Ryan St George’s death and has not explained why

This has not been recorded on his death certificate, however.

Camden Council reviewed the circumstances and this triggered a safeguarding review.

The scope of this is limited to understanding good practice, and there was no public scrutiny of eyewitnesses or those with knowledge of the case.

This would more likely happen in a coroner’s inquest – if one had been held.

When the New Journal contacted St Pancras Coroner’s Court in the summer, we were told a response would be provided but this has not materialised.

Ms St George was praised for her “selfless devotion” by judges who ruled on the prison scandal compensation case.

She said: “I can’t stop asking questions. I need to do it for Ryan. I wish I had been there. I knew what he could eat. I knew how to care for him.”