independent race and refugee news network


	Topics

Government policy

Policing and criminal justice system

Violence and harassment

Asylum seekers and refugees

Education

Media

Employment

Extreme-Right politics

Features

Statistics and definitions

Quiz

Schools against deportations

Reclaiming the struggle

Far-Right in Europe

Police officers acquitted in black death in custody case

By Liz Fekete

1 August 2002

Five police officers have been found not guilty of the manslaughter of Christopher Alder, a 37-year-old black former paratrooper who died on 1 April 1998 after being arrested by Hull police.

The case of Christopher Alder

Christopher Alder was taken to hospital after a fight outside a night club left him with a head injury. At the hospital, it was alleged that he became 'troublesome' and after the police were called he was arrested and taken in a van to Hull police station. By the time he arrived at Queens Road police station, Alder was unconscious. But police officers, believing him to be asleep, dragged him into the station by his arms, with his trousers and underpants at his ankles. He was left unattended for 12 minutes, face down on the floor with his arms behind his back. Officers eventually realised he was not breathing but attempts to resuscitate him failed.

Inquest verdict - unlawful killing

The inquest into Alder's death began in July 2000, two years after his death. The proceedings lasted for 34 days - the longest such hearing in a death in custody case. The most harrowing evidence presented to the inquest was the CCTV footage of Christopher on the floor of the custody suite in the police station. Not one police officer attempted to touch him, let alone check his breathing or rouse him to question him. For those twelve minutes, during which time he lay gasping for breath, the tape shows the 37 breaths that it took for him to die. It also shows the five police officers standing around him making comments such as 'He is as right as rain...this is just a show', 'he kept doing a dying swan act falling off the trolley' followed, finally by 'he's not fucking breathing lads...Do you want an ambulance?

No prosecution

The jury recorded a verdict of unlawful killing (the seventh such verdict in cases of black deaths in police custody). The police officers involved then attempted to get the unlawful killing verdict overturned, but failed. Despite this, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) ruled that there was insufficient evidence for a manslaughter prosecution of the police officers involved in the death.

Family campaigns for justice

Christopher's family continued their fight for justice and in August 2001 lawyers received two new reports - the first by a professor of cardiology at Belfast University and the second by an accident and emergency consultant - which opened up the case for prosecution. Both reports concluded that Christopher could have been resuscitated in the police station had anyone bothered to check him during the time he lay unattended on the floor. The reports were sent to the CPS to see whether manslaughter charges could be added. And in March 2002, the High Court ruled that the officers should face manslaughter charges as well as the misconduct in public office charges that they were already facing.

Acquittals and anger

On 21 June, after three months of evidence, the judge ordered the jury to clear the officers of all charges because of conflicting medical evidence as to the reasons for Christopher's death. In July, the CPS came in for further criticism after the Mirror newspaper revealed that the CCTV footage of Christopher Alder in the police station was accompanied by a 'soundtrack' of officers making monkey noises and laughing. The CPS seized the tapes in April 1998 but the soundtrack was not presented by the CPS as evidence in court because the CPS believed it was not clear who was making the noises or that the noises were racially motivated. The officers must now face an internal police disciplinary inquiry. Christopher Alder's family are calling for a public inquiry into his case.

CARF no's 64, 65, 67, Guardian 22.6, 23.7.02, Mirror 22.7.02

privacy | using our content | advertising | support us