Nigel Bom told a woman before his death he was being bullied in the housing complex where he lived in Christchurch. Photo: Supplied
An inquest into the death of Christchurch man Nigel Bom has heard he was being bullied at his New Brighton housing complex in the months before he died.
The 37-year-old was found dead in his bed in March 2021.
At the hearing on Tuesday, a witness who had name suppression said Bom told her he was being bullied and forced to do things he did not like by others who lived at the complex.
On one occasion Bom told the witness that he did not want to stay there and indicated something was happening to him at home.
She said he did not want to talk about it, and she did not ask him for specifics.
The witness said it was not until after his death that she heard Bom might have been being made to use intravenous drugs as part of the bullying.
She told the Coroner's Court she knew he used cannabis and alcohol and in the months before his death she had seen him with a bag that she assumed contained methamphetamine.
The witness also spoke about Bom's history of epilepsy.
"It'd happen pretty quick. He'd drop to the ground, and his arms would flay around. I'd put him on his side so he didn't bite his tongue and call his name out to reassure him," she said.
She said he would move around a lot when he had an epileptic seizure, moving his arms and legs, and she had never seen him have a seizure which did not involve movement.
The court had heard there were a number of items on the bed where Bom was found dead.
His family had questioned if they would stay on the bed if he had had an epileptic seizure before his death.
The witness was also asked about a bottle of blue liquid she found in Bom's home after his death.
She said she was suspicious about the liquid and raised it with police but when they came to pick it up 10 months later she could no longer find the bottle.
The witness said she had a busy house, especially after Bom's death, and someone might have accidentally thrown it out.
The witness also told the court that Bom's hat had a blood-like red stain and lots of loose hair.
She said she gave him the cap about a week before his death so she was surprised to see it was so dirty when she went to his home after his death.
The witness said she noticed the stain and hair after taking the cap as a memento.
She did not believe the stain was from sweat, because it was a reddish colour.
Asked if it looked like blood by counsel assisting the coroner Lucila van Dam, the witness said it kind of looked like blood.
The witness said the cap was washed after she took it home.
At that stage she had been told Bom had died from natural causes and it was only later that she started to become suspicious about the circumstances of his death.
Nigel Bom's GP Dr David Pilbrow told the inquest that even with treatment Bom was having epileptic seizures every two to four weeks.
He said Bom was vulnerable for a number of reasons, including that he often had a lack of money and food, and was hard to get hold of.
Dr Pilbrow said the GP Clinic tried to create a good package of care around Bom but found this very difficult.
He said they helped him organise new phones, but the phones tended to end up lost, stolen or gone.
Dr Pilbrow outlined one incident in which he and the clinic social worker made a home visit to Bom because they had been struggling to get in touch with him.
He said knew that Bom would often not take his medication, and at times this resulted in him having a seizure.
The inquest also heard from Sergeant Logan Steele, who is the police coronial officer for the inquest.
He said he was sent an image by an associate of Bom of a hand print on the wall of his unit after his death.
Steele said police were not able to get finger prints from the image, as it did not have enough detail or definition.
He said the only thing that could be confirmed was that someone put a dirty hand mark on a wall.
On Monday the inquest heard about an incident in which Bom was held captive and accused of stealing a car.
The inquest was set down for five days before Coroner Rachael Schmidt-McCleave.
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