Peter Gallienne died when his car struck a wall near Vale Castle.

THE family of a mentally-ill man who died in a car crash say they feel that police let them down.

At the resumed inquest into the death of Peter Gallienne, 58, brother-in-law Tony Aller said that officers abandoned Mr Gallienne at his home address, injured and wet, after an incident less than 12 hours before the fatal crash near Vale Castle in June.

The court heard that family members reported Mr Gallienne, of Little Haven, 20, Sandy Hook, missing on 1 June.

He was found at 4pm that day at Grand Havre, injured and deep in thought. His clothes were wet.

Mr Aller said officers ignored advice he had passed on to them from the Castel Hospital that on being found Mr Gallienne should be taken straight to Accident and Emergency so that he could be assessed.

Mr Aller said that it was fortunate that there had been only one death.

‘They said officers thought he was fully coherent,’ Mr Aller told the inquest.

‘I said, “Do you realise your people just abandoned him?” I said, “He’s likely to jump into a car tonight and kill someone.”

‘What worries me it that he could’ve taken someone with him or people with him.’

The inquest heard that Mr Gallienne had a history of mental illness and had made several suicide attempts. In 1984 he was diagnosed as being bipolar. He took overdoses in 1992 and 1993 and was involved in a serious car crash in 1993, which Inspector Richard Medhurst told the court appeared to have been deliberate.

Judge Cherry McMillen said that it was not clear exactly what had happened that night.

Recording an open verdict, she said: ‘I’m not going to speculate as to what was in his mind. It may well have been an accident.’

* A police spokesman said that the force would comment on the issues raised, but did not consider it appropriate to do so at present.