25 April 201317 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Jailed for stealing gingerbread man… dead in the prison

originally by: The Independent
published: 1 April 2013

James Best’s death in prison, where he was being held for stealing a gingerbread man during the August 2011 riots, was one of the most tragic episodes of the disturbances which shook England that summer.

Mr Best, who took the gingerbread man from a looted bakery in Croydon, had at that time only come back to the UK after a period spent living and working in Portugal, and a month before the riots he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act after self-harming in public.

25 April 201317 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Police ‘stood over vulnerable man and watched him die’

originally by: Daily Mail
published: 24 April 2013

Two police officers allowed a vulnerable man to suffocate and die in front of them without trying to help, a court has heard.

PCs Maurice Leigh and Neil Bowdery, of Kent Police, have pleaded not guilty to misconduct in public office over the death of paranoid schizophrenic Colin Holt in August 2010.

Maidstone Crown Court [was told] that police had been called to the 52-year-old’s flat in Gillingham, Kent, to bring him back to hospital as he was subject to a Mental Health Act order.

4 March 201317 December 2022 4WardEverUK

South Norwood man held down by police dies four days later

originally by: This is Croydon
published: 18 February 2013

Olaseni Lewis was much-loved by friends and family, had high ambitions to study abroad and a bright future ahead of him. But his life was cut brutally short after dying in intensive care following a fatal police restraint. Nearly two and a half years and two postponed inquests later, David Churchill speaks to a family still battling for answers and justice.

Next month, instead of celebrating their son’s 26th birthday, Olaseni Lewis’s parents were destined for an inquest court room to hear the events surrounding his unexplained death.