23 March 201822 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Family of Sheku Bayoh slam Crown after failing to charge officers who restrained him

source: Daily Record
published: 29 January 2017

The family of a man who died in police custody have criticised the Crown Office for failing to decide whether to charge officers who restrained him. Sheku Bayoh , 31, lost consciousness after being restrained by officers in Kirkcaldy in May 2015.

But after almost three years his family have still not been told whether anyone will be prosecuted. Bayoh’s sister Kadi Johnson has demanded to know why it’s taken so long for a decision to be made on criminal charges.

4 March 201822 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Battle of Orgreave: more unreleased police files uncovered

source: The Guardian
published: 1 March 2018

Unreleased files about the Battle of Orgreave from five police forces, including a contemporaneous report by a chief constable on the policing of the miner’s strike, have been uncovered by the Commons home affairs committee.

The new files follow the recent identification of nearly 800 unreleased South Yorkshire police files that were not considered when the home secretary, Amber Rudd, ruled out an independent public inquiry.

Yvette Cooper, the chair of the Commons home affairs committee, has written to Rudd asking that an urgent independent “review and publish” process is set up for the newly discovered files to determine which should be made public. She says it should not be left to the individual police forces to decide.

2 March 201822 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Officers accused of spying on sister of man who died in custody cleared

Janet, sister of Christopher Alder — Image credit Wasi Daniju : www.wasidaniju.com

source: The Guardian
published: 1 March 2018

Two police officers accused of spying on the sister of a former paratrooper who was unlawfully killed in police custody have been cleared by a disciplinary panel.

The two officers, who were given anonymity, had been accused of running an unauthorised and intrusive surveillance operation against Janet Alder during an inquest into the death of her brother Christopher.

The pair were alleged to have followed Alder and her barrister Leslie Thomas “without appropriate authorisation and justification” to a hotel and car park and attempted to listen in to their private and legally protected conversations.