21 Sep 2007

A black ex-paratrooper who asphyxiated on a police station floor in a pool of his own blood, urine and excrement while four officers stood and watched has been denied justice due to fundamental flaws in the initial investigation, said Liberty today.

The human rights group this week asked the European Court of Human Rights to determine if Christopher Alder’s death has properly been investigated and if he suffered inhuman and degrading treatment at the hands of the officers.

The ECHR will hear that no one has been held accountable for Mr Alder’s death, due to the initial investigators destroying blood samples, the officers’ clothing and Alder’s clothing without testing them, which compromised subsequent investigations. Liberty will also argue that the officer’s treatment of Mr Alder was in part caused by discrimination against him on grounds of his race.

Alex Gask, Liberty’s legal officer leading the case, said:

“Despite damning CCTV footage of police officers chatting, joking and seeking to justify his arrest while Christopher choked to death in front of them, no one has been held accountable. This horrific injustice casts a shadow over the entire British legal system.”

In March 2006, the Independent Police Complaints Commission concluded that despite flaws in the initial investigation into Mr Alder’s death in 1998, despite “quite obvious neglect of duty” and despite their finding of “unwitting racism”, no further action could be taken against the police. Five Humberside police officers were cleared of manslaughter and misconduct charges in 2002, and cleared of disciplinary offences in 2003.

Christopher’s sister Janet Alder said: “Nearly ten years after his death we are still seeking the truth about why Christopher died alone and in pain in that station. I will not give up until we have justice for my brother.”

Contact: Jen Corlew on 0207 378 3656 or 0797 3 831 128

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. For a copy of Liberty’s application to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Janet Alder, contact jenc@liberty-human-rights.org.uk

2. The Independent Police Complaints Commission made public its two-year investigation into Christopher Alder’s death on 27 March 2006.

3. Liberty supports the Alder family’s request for a full public inquiry into Christopher Alder’s death.

4. Facts of the case: On the evening of his death on 1 April 1998, Alder had been admitted into hospital for treatment of head and facial injuries, apparently after a fight broke out at a pub where he was out with friends. He was arrested by police at the hospital to prevent a breach of the peace and taken to the Queen’s Garden Police station. The actions and inactions of the officers from the time Alder was brought into Queen’s Garden Police station constituted inhuman and degrading treatment. Alder, who was unconscious, was dragged along the floor into the police station by his arms and laid face-down on the floor of the custody suite with his hands still handcuffed behind his back. He was bleeding from the mouth and his trousers had come down to his knees so that the lower half of his body and his genitalia were exposed. He was double-incontinent and thus his naked body and clothes were soiled with his own excrement and urine. He was left there face-down breathing raggedly with long laboured breaths through the pool of blood collecting on the floor by his mouth for 11 minutes. None of the police officers who were standing nearby made any attempt to assist him in any way. They did not check his condition to find out why he was breathing so unevenly, why he was not moving or why he was double-incontinent; they did not attempt to stem the flow of blood from his mouth; they did not pull his trousers up or cover the naked part of his body with a blanket; they did not place him in the recovery position but left him in a position which self-evidently hindered his breathing; they did not remove his handcuffs for two minutes and when they did so they did not respond to the fact that his body remained inert and his hands stayed in the same position. Instead the officers concerned themselves with constructing an account of his behaviour at the hospital which would retrospectively justify his arrest and enable him to be charged with a criminal offence, and engaged in casual banter. When they did discuss the fact that the deceased was still lying face-down on the floor without moving it was only to observe that he was playacting and to make derogatory comments about him such as that he was “mentally disabled”, “an arsehole” and that he wanted “to play the system”. In short they demonstrated complete indifference to the deceased’s obvious human needs.