Grant Steven Bowden sustained a severe brain injury as a result of the November 2017 attack in the exercise yard.
Nearly 14 months later - unable to swallow food or fluids - he died of a chest infection.
His death and the circumstances surrounding it are the subject of a coronial inquiry at the Dunedin District Court which yesterday heard from nurse Susan Ross.
She said she was doing her rounds when a Corrections officer made a "passing comment" about Bowden aggravating gang members.
They wanted to move him to another unit but there was nowhere available, she later recorded the officer saying in an internal file note.
Just hours later Bowden was punched by fellow inmate Nyal Heke - an assault from which he never recovered.
The court yesterday heard a detailed breakdown of the victim’s treatment at prison from former OCF health centre manager Jillian Thompson.
He arrived on October 16, 2017 and staff were immediately aware of his mental-health issues.
Bowden claimed to be a doctor at Wakari Hospital and one of the best surgeons in the world. He was the lead singer of a band called The Tongue Studs and his cousin was the Pope, he told the nurse. He also claimed to be deaf but was able to respond to questions, albeit in a nonsensical way.
Bowden was placed in the prison’s at risk unit (ARU) and a referral was made to forensic mental health services.
The inquest heard he was monitored regularly and remained "agitated and unsettled".
Until October 23, Bowden remained oppositional and irritable before a brief turnaround when he described feeling "better than he had in a long time".
After 11 days in the ARU, at his own request and despite a regression to his erratic behaviour, staff approved a move into the general remand population.
A nurse emailed the principal corrections officer for the unit urging staff to watch Bowden closely and apply a low threshold for his return to the ARU.
The inquiry has heard from various guards who said that information was never passed on to them.
A then Southern District Health Board psychiatrist assessed Bowden and while his thoughts were disordered, after speaking with his regular clinician, she did not advise a return to the ARU.
Ms Thomson said she believed health staff at OCF had adequately cared for the patient and that the treatment he received was reasonably similar to that which he could have expected in the community.
The prison’s director of mental health and addiction services, Dr Emma Gardner, concurred.
She said the risk-assessment tools employed by health staff were not designed to assess inmates’ vulnerability to harm from others.
At the inquiry’s outset in January, counsel Owen Jaques read a statement on behalf of Bowden’s family.
Despite his challenges, they said he enriched their lives.
"Ultimately, Grant taught us about unconditional love you have for family."
