THE accidental death of a Dungog man on the steps of his family home due to an overdose of alcohol has led to a recommendation for more police training for police in dealing with intoxicated people.
The recommendation, made to the NSW Police Force Commissioner, followed a coronial inquest into the death of 41-year-old Anthony Gilbert on the night of January 29, 2019.
His mother found him, lying unresponsive on the front steps of their family home after a three-year battle with alcohol addiction and depression. There was no evidence that the overdose was intentional.
Deputy State Coroner Elizabeth Ryan investigated the circumstances surrounding Mr Gilbert's death from acute alcohol intoxication, and whether police should have detained him as an intoxicated person, and whether they acted appropriately when returning him to his home address.
Maitland police had driven him home and left him there, but Mr Gilbert's parents, Kathryn and Peter Gilbert, had been unable to get him into the house.
Mr Gilbert worked as a highly regarded chef with a number of successful businesses including a cafe which he bought with his wife in East Maitland which they operated until 2011.
About that time his wife became concerned about how much he was drinking, following a diagnosis of depression. His drinking problem got to the point where he was drinking up to two litres of wine per night, the inquest heard.
Magistrate Ryan's findings said that a near-fatal accident in September 2016, in which Mr Gilbert drove the couple's ute dangerously close to their children - was the trigger for his wife to leave.
In 2017 his parents brought him back to the family home in Dungog to try to care for him, but he refused clinician's attempts to assess and treat him.
On the afternoon of January 25 he left his parents home, and four days later the manager of a hotel where he was staying called paramedics who found him intoxicated.
He refused their help but they decided it was not safe to leave him alone and called police, who collected him and took him to Maitland police station and rang his parents.
Mr Gilbert's brother, a former police detective, was called and he asked police to detain Mr Gilbert as an intoxicated person, which was refused, and police ultimately delivered him home.
Magistrate Ryan said ultimately, it was to the police officers' credit that they felt a concern for Mr Gilbert against leaving him in the street, and while there were shortcomings in some of the decisions they made that night, they had concern for Mr Gilbert.
"I would not wish to discourage any other officer from acting on opportunities to help people who are in a similar position," Magistrate Ryan said.
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