In the days before Mr Whitton’s death,he complained of vomiting,kidney pain and urinating blood.
In findings on Friday,Deputy State Coroner Elaine Truscott said Mr Whitton died after ingesting an overdose of paracetamol at the correctional centre,where he had been engaged in “illicit and unsafe drug use” because he was unable to get a place in the methadone program.
Mr Whitton had told medical staff that he used ice,heroin and cannabis from a young age,after several traumatic incidents including being run over by a car,and had been prescribed methadone before coming into custody.
However,at the time,the methadone program had a waiting period of about 13 months,leading dozens of prisoners on the waiting list to procure drugs from other prisoners.
Ms Truscott said the time at which Mr Whitton became ill is “difficult to pinpoint”,however expert evidence suggests he took the ultimately fatal dose of paracetamol several days before his death,most likely on November 3.
“It would be likely that Danny engaged in such practice given his complaint of pain,his drug addiction and use of diverted methadone and his report that he had experienced kidney pain previously,” Ms Truscott said.