A “dangerous criminal” who died while serving an indefinite prison sentence for indecently assaulting an eight-year-old boy passed away from a lung disease caused by smoking, a coroner has determined.
Ronald William Barnard, 82, died at the Royal Hobart Hospital on January 24 last year after 15-years behind bars for his crimes committed in the 2000s.
Coroner Simon Cooper said Barnard was in poor health leading up to his death and had been taken to the hospital three times in the four days prior with complaints of shortness of breath and chest pain.
On two of those occasions, he was given medication and sent back to prison, the inquest heard.
When he returned the day before his death, Cooper said Barnard was pale, diaphoretic, drowsy and agitated during treatment and repeatedly told staff to “f–k off” and “get f—-d”.
Doctors diagnosed him with type 2 respiratory failure and provided overnight palliative care. He died the following day.
An autopsy described Barnard as a “thin appearing elderly man with a hyperexpanded chest and advanced centriacinar emphysema”, a lung disease caused by smoking.
Tasmania Police found no suspicious circumstances, anomalies or inconsistencies with his death.
“The treatment he received at the Royal Hobart Hospital was entirely appropriate and of a high standard,” Cooper said.
“… the care, supervision and treatment of Mr Barnard whilst in custody in the period leading up to his death was of an appropriate standard.”
Barnard had no living relatives and his closest next of kin was a man he met in prison.
A judge found it likely Barnard would offend again if he was released from prison, having received convictions for other sexual assaults of children in the years prior.
