From the moment he was walked through the doors of the beleaguered Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre, Jeremy Sippel sensed something violent was afoot.

“A guard walking by looked at me and said, ‘You’re Jeremy Sippel? You’re famous around here,’ ” he said recalling the first moments at the London jail after he was picked up for a suspected child abduction last June at the Gibraltar Trade Centre.

An hour later, after the 23-year old London man, who was exonerated of the attempted abduction charge, was booked in by the jail’s administrative staff, Sippel was put in a range by the guards and, like a lamb being fed to the wolves, the door was shut behind him.

Less than a minute later, he was swarmed by inmates who’d seen his photo on TV and wanted to dole out some jailhouse justice. Sippel said he was beaten so badly his jaw was broken in three places, requiring two plates, and he was thrown bruised and beaten into a laundry bin.

“A couple of them thought I was dead,” he said.

And the guards who were supposed to protect him didn’t come back to check on him for 30 minutes, Sippel said.

It turns out the inmates beat an innocent man. Sippel’s charge was dismissed for lack of evidence at a preliminary hearing last week. On the same day, five of the six inmates charged with beating him pleaded guilty.

And Sippel, who had never been in EMDC before last summer, wants to pursue legal action, either as part of an ever-growing class-action suit or on his own against the jail and its guards.

At his father’s home, Sippel fidgeted with his hands and broke down into tears once while he told of the horrors he faced at EMDC last summer.

“I had complete trust in the guards that I was safe,” he said. “As anybody is in jail, you’re at their mercy, but I was even moreso.

“Everybody knew who I was. But they had knowledge of it and knew the risk I was in.”

Media reports showed his photograph and word had spread that a labelled child abductor was coming to the jail.

Once on the range, the inmates quickly interrogated him, wanting to confirm he was “the guy from TV.”

Sippel said he tried to explain that though it was him, the photo shown had nothing to do with whether he was guilty. He was surrounded and hit by someone beside him.

Once he retreated to the showers, “the only thing I remember from then is seeing a mid-section of a male and it was twisting” like he was throwing punches, Sippel said.

He doesn’t remember what happened when the guards finally found him in the laundry bin, but said he was told they ordered him to come out. Sippel stumbled and hit his head, causing a large cut that required four staples.

He was in hospital for three days, then placed in segregation where he was in solitary confinement. Sippel was granted bail three weeks later.

He said he knows he made mistakes and would like the family to have some peace of mind from his version of the events.

Sippel plans to leave London to be with his girlfriend. “I absolutely need to get out of this town.”

Though Sippel wants to move past his addiction to a better life, he thinks of Adam Kargus, the inmate who died on an EMDC range last fall.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” he said about the death.

“It’s a jungle in there. Exeter has a serious problem.”

jane.sims@sunmedia.ca

twitter.com/JaneatLFPress

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EMDC TROUBLES

Adam Kargus, 29, is beaten to death in a vicious attack on Oct. 31, 2013. Another inmate is charged with second-degree murder and two guards and a supervisor are charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life

dozens of former and current inmates are part of a $325-million class-action lawsuit against the province over conditions at the jail

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SIDEBAR

Jeremy Sippel’s stint behind bars started because of what he said was a misunderstanding.

He had gone to the Gibraltar Trade Centre on June 30 last year to buy a knife for his own protection after witnessing the stabbing of a friend a few days earlier.

The routine violence of the drug world is something Sippel, who struggles with an opiate addiction, understood.

After buying the knife, Sippel was putting on his in-line skates when a young girl sitting at a nearby table with some adults began to talk to him.

The girl wanted to walk him to the door, holding his hand, to make sure he left unharmed, he said.

Sippel said he told the girl to go back to the restaurant. He said he hung around the door for a few minutes before leaving

He didn’t know a witness snapped a photo of him and that an hour later the encounter was reported as an attempted abduction to the police.

Sippel was arrested the next day wearing the same clothes and in-line skates as the day before.

The charge of attempted abduction against him was dismissed for lack of evidence at an Ontario Court preliminary hearing last week.