'˜Eccentric' Derbyshire man who lived in cave found dead in prison

An '˜eccentric' man who lived in a cave near Baslow has been found dead in prison.
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Andrew Brown had been due to appear at Derby Crown Court on Friday to be sentenced for breaching a suspended sentence.

But the hearing was told that he died at HMP Nottingham on September 17. It is understood he was found dead in his cell.

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In August, Mr Brown, whose address was The Cave, Chatsworth Road, Baslow, was handed a suspended prison sentence after trespassing on a railway line near Chesterfield and causing £70,000 of delays.

His actions caused more than 900 minutes of delays to different train operators as they suspended services throughout Derbyshire the county while police dealt with him.

The 42-year-old was handed a 48-week jail term, suspended for a year, for that offence and for assaulting a police officer who tried to remove him from the tracks.

But a Derbyshire police spokesman said Mr Brown was arrested again just three days later in relation to an incident in Chesterfield town centre.

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He said: “There we found Andrew Brown and, while he was being treated by paramedics, he lashed out at one of our officers. Mr Brown was arrested and, while he was in custody, he damaged a chair at the custody suite and, while being taken back to his cell, he assaulted a second officer.

“He was charged with two counts of assault and one of criminal damage and was recalled prison.”

Mr Brown was scheduled to be sentenced for those offences and for being in breach of his suspended sentence when he was discovered dead in his cell at HMP Nottingham.

In August, Derby Crown Court was told how Mr Brown was spotted by a member of the train team standing on an embankment close to the line and they immediately called it through to their control team.

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That forced trains to stop as the police arrived and followed him on to the track where picked up a brick and threatened one of the officers who he also assaulted.

A Prison Service spokesman said an investigation into Mr Brown’s death would be carried out by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.