Jeroen Ensink
19 Jul 2018 · Coroner ME Hassell · London (Inner) North
The coroner's concerns
1. lack of mental health safeguarding
“Following his arrest on 22 May 2015, no officer created a Merlin in respect of , though his behaviour suggested to both arresting officers the possibility that he was suffering mental health or substance abuse problems. Thus the MASH (multi agency safeguarding hub) was never alerted to his potential need for treatment.”
2. incomplete witness statements
“Only one statement was taken, though there were other witnesses on scene.”
3. failure to document injuries
“The custody sergeant noted that had a bruised, bleeding and swollen lip, yet to the custody record question regarding any injuries, he recorded no.”
4. misrecorded use of force
“The arresting officers described in evidence a violent struggle with when they arrested him. He had tried to grab the Taser belonging to one of the officers. Yet the custody sergeant recorded that no force had been used.”
5. inadequate mental health assessment trigger
“The custody sergeant gave evidence that, had it not been for suspected cannabis use, he would not have called the FME for any other reason.”
6. failure to trigger alerts for family information
“When sister rang the police station to explain that in Nigeria, her brother had been diagnosed with mental health problems, and to ask that she be permitted to attend during his interview as an appropriate adult, the detention officer recorded this, but the system did not create any sort of alert or pop up.”
Responses
No published response was found on judiciary.uk.