One of the police officers responsible for the care of Sean Rigg, who died in custody in 2008, faces misconduct proceedings after Scotland Yard stopped him retiring before disciplinary action could be taken against him. The officer, who was the custody sergeant on duty on the night Rigg died, was due to face gross misconduct proceedings but had informed the Metropolitan police of his intention to retire next Tuesday.



The Guardian understands that Sgt Paul White is accused of giving false evidence to Rigg’s inquest, as well as to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigators. Another officer, PC Mark Harratt, is understood to face the same allegation, as well as a further one of bringing the Met into disrepute by altering his evidence.

A statement from the Met police read: “A police sergeant investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct in connection with the death of Sean Rigg has today been suspended by the Metropolitan Police Service, having had his request to retire from the MPS rescinded.”

The move followed a call by Marcia Rigg, Sean’s sister, for Scotland Yard to take action to prevent White from retiring and therefore avoid the misconduct proceedings.

Sean Rigg’s sister Marcia Rigg held a weekly vigil outside Brixton police station with family and friends in 2008. Photograph: Teri Pengilley/for the Guardian

Marcia Rigg’s lawyer, Daniel Machover, said White’s retirement would have prevented him from facing disciplinary charges over her brother’s death on 21 August 2008.

White told investigators and the coroner that he checked on Sean Rigg in the back of a police van at Brixton police station shortly before the 40-year-old died. He was found not guilty of a criminal charge of perjury in relation to that evidence in 2016.



This week the watchdog ordered Scotland Yard to bring gross misconduct proceedings, which would require a lower burden of proof than a criminal charge. White told the police watchdog in 2009 he checked on Rigg in the van and repeated the claim at the inquest at Southwark coroner’s court in 2012.

Sean Rigg’s sisters Marcia Rigg, right, and Samantha Rigg-David in 2008. Photograph: Teri Pengilley/Guardian

White agreed that this could not have been true after he was shown CCTV that contradicted his account. He said he had made a mistake and was completely shell-shocked. “I just apologised because I knew I was wrong,” he told Southwark crown court during his perjury trial.

A change in the rules has allowed forces to pursue officers for misconduct even after they retire, but it only applies to cases that arose after 2012. White’s retirement would have prevented the force bringing proceedings against him.

Deborah Coles, director of the criminal justice charity Inquest, had earlier urged the IOPC and the Met to stop the officer from retiring. “After the highly critical Angiolini review on deaths in custody, we cannot allow officers to continue to evade potential sanctions,” she said.