“Families want the truth about what's happened and they want people held to account. But most of all they want it to stop happening to somebody else. And one of the things that I don't think is understood is the added trauma for families who've looked to these processes for change to then hear about another death in similar circumstances.”

Deborah Coles, Inquest

In episode nine of our Sheku Bayoh: The Inquiry podcast we are looking at the patterns that can be seen in deaths in custody, and the power dynamics at play.

It features evidence from Marcia Rigg, whose brother Sean died in a police cell in 2008, after having a mental health crisis, as it looks to understand the role race may have played in Sheku Bayoh’s death. 

Sean was from Brixton – home to the 1981 riots in response to the policing of the Black community by the Metropolitan Police. Sheku was from the small former mining town of Kirkcaldy in Fife.

So why are there so many similarities – from the way officers involved were allowed to remain together before being questioned, to the ways the families were treated following the deaths of their loved ones.

As we hear from Deborah Coles of Inquest, families tell her charity repeatedly that they want to know the truth, and they want accountability – but more than that they want lessons to be learned to stop this happening to anyone else.

And it also covers shocking allegations of racism within the police against Black and ethnic minority officers, with instances as recently as 2023. Some giving evidence claim racism in the police has been left in the past.  But Sanda Deslandes-Clark, former general secretary of Police Scotland’s staff association for Black and ethnic minority officers, says she has evidence that racism still exists in the force.

Her view that those who are “not fit to be police officers in the 21st century” must be weeded out was backed by Dame Elish Angolini, who gave evidence on her past work on deaths in police custody.

For Marcia Rigg though, simply getting rid of the “bad apples” is not enough. She tells the Inquiry that reform is needed to ensure that the UK has “a police service not a police force”. “For Sean or perhaps Sheku," she says, "we can't do anything now but we need to do it for Sheku's sons and for Sean's sons.“

Read the script in full.

Credits:

Presented by Tomiwa Folorunso and Karin Goodwin

Written by Karin Goodwin

Research by Tomiwa Folorunso

Recording, editing and sound design by Halina Rifai

Original music by Alan Bryden