A Black Man’s Life Not Valued’: Attack on Year-Long Delay of UK Police Death Inquiry

An official review into the death of a black man who was punched repeatedly by police, beaten with a baton and Tasered has been delayed for the last year because investigators have yet to obtain a transcript of the inquest. Campaigners said the “unacceptable” hold up of the inquiry into the death of Darren Cumberbatch, 32, delivered the “message that the life of a black man is not valued”.

Cumberbatch died of multiple organ failure in hospital in July 2017 after being arrested by police at a probation hostel in Nuneaton, west Midlands. His family say the electrician’s body was covered in bruises and “strange marks” when they visited him in hospital, where he died nine days after being apprehended. The incident prompted a series of marches for justice in Coventry, Cumberbatch’s home city. An inquest heard he was punched 15 times by officers, and that police restraint, including use of Tasers and batons, contributed to Cumberbatch’s death. The coroner said the level of restraint used by Warwickshire Police was “excessive”. After the inquest concluded in June last year, the independent police watchdog pledged to “review the findings” of its investigation, not yet made public, into Cumberbatch’s death.

Source: Mark Townsend, Guardian, https://is.gd/7JyGUt

Contact with the Midlands Police Can Be Fatal [Sean Fitzgerald Monday 7 January 2019 – Trevor Smith  4th January 2019 – Mark Yafai, 1st July, 2015 – Rafal Delezuch –  15th August 2012, Xuan Wei Zhang,  4th April 2012, Lloyd Butler – 4th August 2011, Demetre Fraser – 31st May 2011, Kingsley Burrell-Brown – 30th March 2011, Mikey Powell –  7th September 2003, John Leo O’Reilly – 3rd July 1994, all ten died after coming into contact with West Midlands Police]