A PRISONER in Winchester died of pneumonia following successful treatment for cancer, an inquest heard.

Graham Foster-Middleton, 47, died on August 14 last year at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital.

A coroner’s court in Winchester on Wednesday (OCT 23) heard the Havant man was serving a three-year sentence and had been diagnosed with cancer of the throat.

A letter from his prison GP, Dr Michael Richardson, dated August 14 this year, said the inmate suffered from “untreatable cancer”.

But Dr Adnan Al-Badri, consultant pathologist, said tests showed the prisoner did not die of cancer.

“He was not misdiagnosed. He was successfully treated,” he said.

Simon Burge, deputy coroner for central Hampshire, said Dr Richardson had been called to give evidence at the inquest but failed to appear.

Mr Burge said he was satisfied that Foster-Middleton’s care was “equivalent to that which he would receive in the community,” and that his pneumonia was the result of complications linked to his cancer treatment.

He recorded a verdict of death due to natural causes.