all credits: IOPC
published: September 2022
In September 2022 the Independent Office for Police Misconduct (IOPC) released details of their custody deaths statistics for England 2021-2022.
The following content is transcribed from the IOPC website.
Deaths during or following police contact
Police forces have a statutory duty to refer all incidents involving a death or serious injury to us. Each year, we publish data showing how many people have died after contact with the police.
source: BBC News
published: 28 September 2022
A police officer has been found not guilty of assaulting an ex-footballer the night he was killed. Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith was accused of striking Dalian Atkinson with her baton when he posed no threat in August 2016, but claimed she was “very frightened”.
Mr Atkinson had been acting out of character outside his father’s house in Telford due to ongoing health issues and died after being tasered by PC Bettley-Smith’s partner, Benjamin Monk. He was jailed in 2021.
source: INQUEST
published: 20 July 2017
Darren Cumberbatch, a 32 year old Black man, died in hospital on 19 July 2017, nine days after excessive use of force against him by Warwickshire Police officers. This took place whilst he was experiencing a mental health crisis in a bail hostel, McIntyre House, in Nuneaton.
A jury inquest took place in 2019 and found the police use of force against Darren, which ‘may have been excessive and avoidable’, contributed to his death. See notes for further background. Last year the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) included Darren’s death in a critical review of cases involving Tasers. This led Darren’s and other families to call for reinvestigation of their cases.
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