News in 2006

27th March 2006

Police 'neglect' in custody death

The four officers present when former paratrooper Christopher Alder choked to death in a police station nearly eight years ago were guilty of the "most serious neglect of duty", the police watchdog said.

Independent Police Complaints Commission chairman Nick Hardwick said the treatment of Mr Alder amounted to "unwitting racism".

Humberside Police Chief Constable Tim Hollis has apologised to the Alder family "for our failure to treat Christopher with sufficient compassion and to the desired standard that night".

In a highly damming 400-page report, Mr Hardwick condemned the behaviour of the four officers as "disgraceful" and criticised the two police investigations into Mr Alder's death in Hull on April 1 1998.

Mr Hardwick said: "I believe the failure of the police officers concerned to assist Mr Alder effectively on the night he died were largely due to assumptions they made about him based on negative racial stereotypes.

"I cannot say for certain that Mr Alder would have been treated more appropriately had he been white - but I do believe the fact he was black stacked the odds more heavily against him."

Mr Alder, of Dagger Lane, Hull, banged his head during a scuffle outside a city centre hotel and was then arrested for an alleged breach of the peace.

He was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary for treatment.

But later at Queen's Gardens police station, he choked to death on his own blood and vomit as he lay on the floor without moving for 11 minutes.

The report said the case was a "major failure" in the police discipline system, and Mr Hardwick backed calls for swift reform and modernisation.

Source: IC Scotland