Calls For Questions Over Death of Student Killed By Derby Curfew Boxer

22 August 2016, 16:21 | Updated: 22 August 2016, 16:29

The sister of a university student killed when he was punched by a professional boxer on curfew in Derby has made an emotional appeal to an inquest to answer questions about her brother's death.

Jagdip Randhawa, 19, from Hounslow, died after falling and hitting his head on a concrete path following the attack by Clifton Ty Mitchell during a night out in Leeds in October 2011.

The inquest at Wakefield Coroner's Court heard that, after the assault by Mitchell, who was on bail for another violent offence at the time, Mr Randhawa was placed on a faulty ventilator in hospital, starving him of oxygen.

His sister, Majinder, told the inquest that medical experts said her brother could have survived his injuries if it was not for what had happened at Leeds General Infirmary.

Frequently breaking down as she gave evidence, Ms Randhawa said her brother had been placed on the faulty ventilator for 46 minutes, during which time alarms to alert staff to a problem sounded constantly.

She said one doctor told the criminal trial it was the ``worst level of care he had seen in his 27-year career''.

Raj Desai, representing the family at the inquest, asked Ms Randhawa: ``The expert evidence was that if it hadn't been for the ventilator, your brother could have survived?''

She replied: ``He said what was a survivable injury was not survivable because of what happened at hospital.''

The inquest also heard that Mitchell, whose bail conditions required him to live and sleep at his parents' address in Derby, had breached his bail on a number of occasions and was arrested in Leeds in the early hours of the morning after the fatal attack.

The boxer, who was 21 at the time, was found guilty of manslaughter after a trial and given an extended sentence of 10 years.

Asked by assistant coroner Kevin McLoughlin what she wanted from the inquest, Ms Randhawa said: ``I would like to know what happened to my brother when he was taken into hospital, where he should have been cared for, where he was on his own, we weren't with him.

``What happened? What went so wrong? Why was he on a faulty ventilator for 46 minutes, which is not a short amount of time, and how that could be allowed to happen? And how that can't happen again to anyone else.

``The second thing my family would like to know is how that man came to be in Leeds on that night to punch and kill my brother when he'd breached his bail so many times before? He was a professional boxer, he'd committed a violent offence, how was that allowed to happen?

``This must not happen to anybody else, anybody else's family, because it's really, really hard to cope with.''

Ms Randhawa said her brother, a keen American footballer, had just begun his second year of studying English at university in Leeds and wanted to be a writer.

She said: ``He was funny, really quick, confident, just a good guy.''

She sobbed as she added later: ``My brother was 19. We didn't get to see his 21st birthday. We didn't get to see him graduate. All the things parents would want for their children, my parents haven't got that any more.

``Our lives stopped when Jag died.''

The inquest into Mr Randhawa's death is expected to last for three weeks.