“On another occasion, around April, she was placed in isolation for nine straight days because she spent an extra two minutes in the shower. They took her fan, her books that we had given her and she spent the first four days without her medication. This is big time bullying and mental abuse and it should stop,” Martin said.

Throughout her two two-year jail term for fraud and theft, Martin said he had never been informed about any mental health issues of his daughter. The first time he heard about her previous four suicide attempts was in the ITU – when it was already too late.

The Corradino Correctional Facility claimed, shortly after her death, that she had never expressed any suicidal thoughts.

But according to her father, she had cut her wrists with the shards of a broken mirror just two days before she landed in hospital in critical condition.

Martin also said that Kim’s requests to be taken to Mount Carmel Hospital were either rejected or ignored.

On June 16th, Martin was informed that Kim woke up early and had asked a prison warden to pass her a cigarette from another inmate across the hall.

As the warden refused and started teasing her about it, she “began shouting that she was going to commit suicide because she had had enough,” her father said.

Just minutes later she asked for a blanket and jogging trousers, which the warden gave them to her and left.

As other inmates were yelling at Kim to stop what she was doing, the wardens came back – only to find her in her cell in her underwear, having used the jogging trousers to commit the act.

Three days after she was rushed to hospital, it was found that three of her ribs were broken, leading her father to wonder how this had happened.

“When Kim was last sent to jail, I told her mother that I preferred her behind bars than in a coffin… unfortunately, she got both,” the heartbroken father said.

“What made her flip? She went in there to reform but her life was cut short after she reached breaking point. I will not bring my daughter back but I don’t want this to happen to others. Let’s save lives,” Martin said.

She would make her dad handmade cards from jail and apologise for what she did whenever she called him. “She kept telling me ‘sorry daddy for doing this, I will make it up to you when I’m out… I’m sorry for what I did’.”

“Kim often called her mum to bring her clothes for other inmates who were in need. She was a good girl but this habit kept catching on to her.”

The two had been planning her post-prison life, agreeing to Kim attending a drug rehab programme to kick the habit once and for all, with her being excited to start driving her car again.

But after three weeks in intensive care, she died in Mater Dei hospital. Kim’s funeral was held on the day of her 30th birthday.

Family lawyers Rachel Tua and Edmond Cuschieri said they “are not after the pound of flesh,” but prisons are meant to reform. “We just want justice for Kim because we want to avoid future similar episodes involving other people’s children.”

A spokeswoman for the Home Affairs Minister ignored the father’s claims. The only thing she said is that the case was brought before the courts of justice, and that the officials in question were also subject to proceedings before the Public Service Commission.

“By law, this ministry is precluded from providing information that correlates to ongoing criminal procedures,” she said.

The two wardens that have been suspended earlier this week will be charged in court following a magisterial inquiry into the suicide case, as they committed “crimes of an involuntary nature.”

Involuntary homicide carries a maximum prison term of four years or a fine of €11,000.

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