The family of a Riddlesden man who suffered a fatal asthma attack while in custody has accused the Prison Service of a cover up after an independent inquiry into his death found the medical care he received was "inadequate".

The prison system was found to have "failed" Paul Wright, 33, whose treatment at the hands of an unsupervised doctor also contributed to his death at Armley Prison, Leeds, on November 7, 1996.

The inquiry, the first to be conducted into a death in custody under the Human Rights Act, was ordered after Mr Wright's mother and aunt won a High Court battle to force the Government into holding an independent investigation into the death.

The family argued that Mr Wright, who had a long history of asthma, was not given the correct medication and did not receive the proper levels of care while serving a three-and-a-half year sentence for fraud, possession of drugs and driving without a licence.

A central theme of the investigation focused on whether Dr Kumar Narain Singh, a former GP who had earlier been disciplined by the General Medical Council for neglecting his responsibilities to dying patients, had played an "excessive role" in the treatment of Mr Wright.

Dr Jon Davies, who headed the inquiry, carried out by human rights organisation Liberty on behalf of the Government, said: "Paul Wright's medical care was in the hands of a medical officer whose appointment to the Prison Service had been mishandled, who was, contrary to the cautionary and admonitory adumbrations of his record in front of the GMC, allowed to operate with the full franchise of an independent clinician.

"In the months before his death, it seems clear to me that the medical service provided was inadequate.

"In the days before his death there is considerable doubt whether Paul Wright had in his possession medication which might have saved him."

It was "very likely" that on the night of his death the routine prison surveillance system had failed to detect that Mr Wright was in danger of his life.

The family of Mr Wright had accused the Prison Service of a "gross failure" to disclose information at an inquest into the death.

The inquiry report was yesterday welcomed by the dead man's mother, Margaret Wright, 62, of Ridgemount Road, Riddlesden, and his aunt, Moira Bennett, 54, of New Farnley, Leeds, who fought a long campaign for a public inquiry into his death.

In a statement Mrs Bennett said: "My sister and I are pleased the inquiry has at last taken place, but we are disappointed that we had to take the Home Office to court to get this inquiry and that it was ordered more than five years after Paul's death.

"We are also disappointed that many of our questions remain unanswered and are concerned that the answers to these questions may never be revealed.

"I think the Prison Service has covered up what happened and I'm still very concerned about the poor level of medical care in prisons, notably in Armley itself."

Liberty lawyer Joanne Sawyer said she believed it should have gone further by stating "categorically" that the death was caused by "negligence in the Prison Service and alarming inadequacies in the prison health-care system".