16 March 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Smiley Culture dies during a Surrey police raid

originally by: OBV
16th March 2011

The sudden death of UK reggae icon Smiley Culture during a police raid by the Metropolitan Police Serious and Organised Crime Squad has sent shockwaves through the UK urban music scene and black communities.

Questions are being raised within Black communities in London over reports that the former singer ‘killed himself’.

There is a growing consensus that the reggae star may have been involved in a struggle with police officers that may have contributed to the stars untimely death.

29 January 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

SERCO and youth justice agencies condemned for unlawful treatment of vulnerable boy

originally by: INQUEST
27th January 2011

The jury at the second inquest into the death of 14 year old Adam Rickwood in Hassockfield Secure Training Centre in County Durham on 8 August 2004 today returned a damning narrative verdict criticising failings by Serco, the private company running Hassockfield, the Youth Justice Board, Prison Service restraint trainers and the Lancashire Youth Offending Team.

Following today’s verdict, Adam Rickwood’s mother Carol Pounder said:

“Nothing can bring Adam back. I have waited over six years for truth and justice. All I have ever wanted is to find out the truth about what happened to my son and for those responsible for unlawful assaults to be held to account”.

11 January 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Inquest into death of High Wycombe man Marcus Cottoy

originally by: Bucks Free Press
6th January 2011

A 31-year-old man who feared ‘people were after him’ died after consuming drugs, an inquest heard this week. Marcus Cottoy, of Hawthorne Road, Micklefield, died on March 22, 2009, hours after being arrested and sectioned in a mental health unit. The inquest into his death began in Winslow yesterday and is scheduled to last eight days. Mr Cottoy had become “paranoid” that people were following him on the previous night, the inquest heard.

At about midnight he pleaded with bar staff at the King George V pub on London Road to call the police, saying he had smashed a window with a pool ball and wanted to be arrested, the inquest heard.