No charges over death of man in police custody
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No charges will be brought over the death of a mentally ill black man who died in police custody, the Crown Prosecution Service has confirmed.
No charges will be brought over the death of a mentally ill black man who died in police custody, the Crown Prosecution Service has confirmed.
Roger Sylvester, from Tottenham in north London, died in January 1999 after being restrained by police.
Eight police officers were suspended after a 2003 inquest ruled the 30-year-old had been "unlawfully killed" but were reinstated when that verdict was quashed by a High Court judge in November last year.
A CPS spokesman said: "The Crown Prosecution Service has concluded ... that there is insufficient evidence to justify the prosecution of any person in relation to the tragic death of Roger Sylvester."
Six of the officers were directly involved in restraining Mr Sylvester, who suffered from bipolar manic depression and was taken to St Anne's psychiatric hospital in Haringey. The police argued that he was suffering from cannabis-induced psychiatric illness and had been "acting bizarrely" outside his home in Summerhill Road, Tottenham. He was naked and repeatedly throwing himself to the ground.
Mr Sylvester became violent in hospital while awaiting medical assessment and was restrained for about 20 minutes by officers before collapsing. He was taken to Whittington Hospital where he remained in a coma until his death on 19 January.
Mr Sylvester's family said they were disappointed but not at all surprised by the CPS decision. In a statement they said: "We have faced a criminal justice system that has been persistently unable and unwilling to bring its own to account."
They said the only public scrutiny into the matter - the jury at the 2003 inquest - had returned a verdict of unlawful killing.
Speaking after the CPS decision, Commander Alf Hitchcock, in charge of criminal justice for the Metropolitan Police, said a team for "death-in-custody prevention and reduction" had been set up last year. "Although deaths in police custody have been reducing, we have been working with medical experts to examine ways of reducing that number further," he said.