By Chris Bradley
This is an edited version of the previous article, which may be published in print.
A year after the Police Complaints Authority [PCA] held a conference on preventing deaths in police custody or following police contact, the body count rose to its second highest, 62, since 1993, INQUEST, an independent organisation specialising in contentious deaths, found.
That was 2003 and after high profile deaths involving the Police, such as Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005 or Ian Tomlinson in 2009, where the Police have been widely thought to have acted violently and unlawfully INQUEST released figures that show a “culture of impunity” within the legal system.
No police officer has been convicted by the Crown Prosecution Service [CPS] in 17 years, despite over 700 deaths in custody or following police contact.
In a speech welcoming the Safer Restraint report by the PCA, Chris Mullin, then MP and Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, said: “Forcible restraint is an emotive subject. The death of somebody in custody or in the process of being taken to custody always arouses strong emotions. Questions will be asked about the amount of force used and whether the police actions were justified.”
The PCA empathised with the Police stating: “Officers usually have very little time to assess a situation and plan a response. Moreover, officers may have conflicting priorities: at the same time they have a duty of care toward the individual, they are also required to protect the public and themselves from harm.
“From a legal standpoint officers' use of force should be reasonable, necessary and proportionate and that each individual is accountable for his or her actions.”
The latest case of this kind the CPS will decide if it will prosecute is that of a 26 year-old off duty Merseyside Police officer, who was arrested on suspicion of murder when Christopher Shackleton, 42, died in hospital after an incident, allegedly over a spilt pint, involving “a number of men” in the Freshfield pub, Formby, in July.
The police officer was questioned by Merseyside Police and bailed until January. The Independent Police Complaints Commission [IPCC] will be investigating the case, but their findings are irrelevant to the CPS who makes the final judgement on court proceedings.
INQUEST said previous controversial deaths involving the police have not been treated from the outset as a potential homicide when they condemned the CPS decision not to prosecute a police officer over the death of Ian Tomlinson, who was hit with a baton and pushed to the ground at the G20 protest in April last year.
Deborah Coles, co-director of INQUEST, said: “The eyes of the world will be looking on with incredulity as yet again a police officer is not facing any criminal charges after what is one of the most clear cut and graphic examples of police violence that has led to death.”
Keir Stammer QC said three separate post mortems carried out on Mr Tomlinson were reason not to prosecute because they yielded different causes of death.
The first, by Dr Freddy Patel, who is being investigated by the General Medical Council over four other botched autopsies, claimed “coronary heart disease” was the cause of death. It has been confirmed, twice, that Mr Tomlinson died from internal bleeding.
The IPCC said of the CPS inaction to Mr Tomlinson’s death: “Given the CPS decision, we will now conclude our final report and pass it to HM Coroner so that preparations can be made for an inquest, where the circumstances of Mr Tomlinson’s death will be publically aired and rightly scrutinised.”
The Metropolitan Police officer will face a disciplinary hearing for gross misconduct.
Paul King, Mr Tomlinson’s son, said: “After 16 months of waiting, to hear nothing is being done is a complete joke. The experience has broken our family apart. The DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] has told us there was an unlawful act, yet no charges are to be brought.”
The CPS website states: “When deciding whether there is enough evidence to prosecute, Prosecutors must consider whether the evidence can be used in court and whether it is reliable. This means that they must assess the quality of the evidence from all witnesses before reaching a decision.
"If there is not a realistic prospect of conviction, the case must not go ahead, no matter how serious or sensitive it may be. If there is a realistic prospect of conviction, the Prosecutor will ask the next question: is a prosecution required in the public interest?"
The swift action of Merseyside Police to arrest an officer for suspicion of murder may be breaking new ground but there is an Orwellian nightmare lurking if the police uniform is acting as an invincibility cloak for actions, captured on film, deemed unlawful but, say the CPS, are not worth prosecuting because a conviction is unrealistic.
