Man told mother of his happiness days before custody death

Nearly five years after her son suffered a fatal collapse in a hospital while in police custody, Sheila Sylvester was yesterday finally given the chance to attend court and say what he had told her before his death: "He said 1999 was his year. He said he wanted to have a millennium baby. He was happy with himself. The authorities were pleased with him."

A jury at St Pancras coroner's court, north London, heard that within days of expressing faith in his future, Roger Sylvester, who had battled mental illness and drugs problems for 11 years, died after he was detained by police outside his home following reports of a naked black man hammering on a front door.

The inquest, which has been delayed by years of bureaucracy and legal process, is being held into how the 30-year-old administration worker slipped into a coma at St Anne's hospital in north London while he was being restrained by eight Metropolitan Police officers in a room while waiting for medical attention.

Dr Andrew Reid, the Inner London North coroner, was told that Mr Sylvester, who suffered from manic depression triggered by a vicious street attack, had been turning a corner in his efforts to control his illness through medication and to halt his use of drugs, when he was detained under the Mental Health Act on 11 January 1999 outside his home and taken to a psychiatric unit.

The family of the dead man, whose case has become the focus of efforts by campaigners to highlight the disproportionate number of deaths of black men in police custody, hope to establish that inappropriate methods of restraint - and not his own medical condition or alleged aggressive conduct - caused Mr Sylvester's death.

Despite being arrested for offences including the attempted robbery of a taxi driver at knife point and being admitted to psychiatric units nine times between 1989 and October 1997 suffering bouts of depression, often linked to taking drugs including crack cocaine, the inquest was told that the avid Arsenal fan had been making significant progress in the 15 months before his death.

Michael Collins, a drug outreach worker with the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey mental health trust, who was in charge of managing Mr Sylvester from October 1997, told the hearing: "He wanted to prove that he was capable of being compliant, that he was capable of leading a stable life. He would phone me to remind me to get the results of his latest drug test. All of the indicators were positive."

The hearing was told that Mr Sylvester, who had two part-time jobs and a girlfriend, had shown no sign of succumbing to his illness in the days before his arrest. His cousin, Ann Renwick, who employed him in her mobile phone shop, said he had recently rediscovered his Christian faith, describing his behaviour and state of mind as "perfect".

But, unknown to his family, Mr Sylvester, from Tottenham, north London, was also missing counselling sessions which formed part of a probation order, and had also used cannabis in the last three weeks of his life, the inquest was told.

His mother, a retired nurse, said that despite Mr Sylvester's violent mood swings, which had included threats of violence against his family, he was a "coward" who would never actually use force.

The jury was told that he was transferred to the intensive care unit after he lost consciousness while being detained at St Anne's hospital. He died seven days later at the nearby Whittington hospital, where he was born.

Mrs Sylvester, 68, said she had known within hours of his collapse that her son would not recover: "I kissed him, cuddled him, called him 'Roger, Roger'. I touched him, did everything, but in my opinion he was already dead."

The inquest, which is expected to last four weeks, continues.