The investigation of deaths in custody desperately needs radical reform. Today Liberty, along with people whose relatives died in police custody and who have struggled for years since to find the truth, calls on the Government to overhaul the entire system from initial investigation, through coroners' courts and on to other remedies. And it argues, in new research published today, that the current system clearly breaches the right to life as enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights.

On the day that the Government's Coroners Review Team is due to report, with other reviews and inquiries still examining the roles of CPS, death certification etc, Liberty's report Deaths in Custody - reform and redress lays out the flaws in the system ands makes 21 key recommendations for change. These include:

- breaking the dominant link with the police in investigations - especially those where people died in contacts with the police themselves

- investigating every death in custody as a possible homicide - to avoid some of the damaging early errors of past cases
- investigating all custody deaths independently - whether they involve the police, prisons, secure hospitals or other forms of compulsory detention

Changes to the coroners' courts, to rights of representation and appeal for families, and to the key decision processes on whether officers involved should be prosecuted also all feature.

Christopher Alder's death in 1998 led - after a lengthy fight - to the prosecution of five police officers. The trial collapsed in 2002. The case is now bound for the European Court; this month, the police re-opened disciplinary proceedings against five officers involved. At the launch today, Christopher's sister Janet said:

"Tomorrow it's five years to the day since Christopher died in police custody .. what still remains is the numerous unanswered questions and the lack of explanations by any agency. ... Until truth, transparency and admission are given, there are going to be more deaths in police custody, more deaths in prison, more deaths in psychiatric hospital". On her brother's case, where hours of videotape of his death in a police custody suite are still being withheld from the family, she said simply: "I challenge them [the police and CPS] to release the video to the family" so the public can decide whether anything went wrong.

Christopher Edwards' death and his parents' eight-year battle for the truth and for justice culminated in their historic European Court victory last year, which found the UK in breach of its Article 2 duty to protect Christopher's life and to investigate fully after his death.

Today, his mother Audrey Edwards said:

"As the mother of a young man who died in prison, I very much welcome this report". She described how "The official legal process of police investigation, inquest and trial had run its course but none of those involved [in the death] had been called as witnesses to be questioned in public, and as a result we knew virtually nothing".

She also criticised Essex police, whose "secretive, self protective approach has been consistent throughout, starting from refusal to release copies of statements ... through refusing to allow some key officers to appear before the multi-agency inquiry, to refusing to release copies of the PCA report. Nor were we reassured by the role of the PCA itself which appeared to give higher priority to negotiating an agreement with Essex Police than to revealing the full facts of what happened"

"The European Court ruled last year that not only had Christopher been denied his right to life but that we had been denied our right to both an effective investigation into Christopher's death and a remedy through the UK legal system ... We sincerely trust that the Government is now giving urgent thought to changing the nature of investigations into deaths in custody to overcome the defects the European Court found in our case. This new Liberty report should be accepted as a valuable input into this process of review".


John Wadham, director of Liberty, said of the agencies involved in deaths in custody:

"There is too often a defensive posture instead of a search for the truth; there are agencies using legal means to prevent disclosure of documents which could be disclosed ... We hope people will take away the findings of this report, and that it will help achieve some positive change, so we won't hear such terrible stories in another five years' time".



The report was published on Monday 31st March with a launch at Matrix Chambers. It was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the Civil Liberties Trust. The Advisory Board overseeing the research included representatives from the Police Complaints Authority, Association of Chief Police Officers, Police Federation, Home Office, Crown Prosecution Service, Prison Service, Inquest and other key organisations, plus notable lawyers and academics. The Committee was chaired by Vera Baird, QC MP.