Sister of man who died three years ago says justice system has failed the family

Scotland’s chief prosecutor has decided not to charge any police officers over the death of Sheku Bayoh, a trainee gas engineer who died in custody three years ago.

Bayoh died while being subdued by a group of officers soon after 7am on Sunday 3 May 2015 in Kirkcaldy, Fife. The officers used CS gas, pepper spray, batons and leg and arm restraints as they arrested him.

James Wolffe, the lord advocate, formally told Bayoh’s family that he would not prosecute any of the officers involved during a private meeting at the Crown Office in Edinburgh on Wednesday.

Speaking shortly after their meeting, Bayoh’s sister Kadijatu Johnson told reporters: “I have left this office very disappointed and disgusted. My brother Sheku has died and yet the police get to walk free. The justice system has failed us as a family as well as his two boys.”

Immediately after seeing the lord advocate, Bayoh’s family and their solicitor, Aamer Anwar, had a private meeting with Humza Yousaf, the Scottish justice secretary, at his office in the Scottish parliament.

Yousaf echoed an earlier commitment from Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, to seriously consider a public inquiry into the case if the family decided not to press for a formal review of the Crown Office decision.

He said ministers shared the family’s determination to get the answers they sought. A public inquiry “definitely remains an option, but it is a decision that we can take only once the process around criminal proceedings has been fully exhausted”, Yousaf said.

The Crown Office is refusing to confirm that Lord Wolffe has opted not to prosecute until the family has decided whether to ask for an internal review. If no review is carried out, the other option would be to press ahead with a fatal accident inquiry (FAI), a sheriff-led investigation into the circumstances of Bayoh’s arrest and death.

Anwar said the family were adamant a public inquiry was the best option, a position backed on Wednesday by Scottish Labour and the Liberal Democrats, as well as the deaths in custody campaign group Inquest.

“An FAI would be another betrayal and would do nothing to bring about real change, accountability and justice,” Aamer said. “There have been repeated attempts by police sources to print lies, criminalise, speculate and smear Sheku in his final moments.

“Sheku Bayoh was under the influence of drugs but he did not deserve to die. He acted out of character and the police had every right to act if he had broken the law to defend themselves, but any force used had to reasonable, proportionate and legitimate.”

Bayoh’s common law wife, Collette Bell, and his relatives launched a civil action for damages against Police Scotland in May, seeking £1.85m in damages in what is thought to be the first time a Scottish force has been sued for unlawful killing.

His family insist Bayoh died from positional asphyxia as a direct result of the use of incapacitants and being crushed on the pavement by up to five officers. Postmortems showed dozens of bruises, cuts and a type of haemorrhaging around his eyes consistent with being asphyxiated.

They said CCTV evidence disproved police claims he had been violent and physically threatening towards the police, and showed he was empty-handed when approached by police.

The police said their techniques were proportionate, and that toxicology evidence showed Bayoh had taken ecstasy and alpha PVP, a synthetic psychostimulant. The officers had been responding to witness claims that a man had been acting erratically on a nearby street and waving a sword or knife. Police sources say Bayoh had had a violent confrontation with a friend several hours before he was arrested.

It is understood some experts gave evidence that those drugs contributed to Bayoh’s death and the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC), an independent complaints agency, cleared the police of wrongdoing.

A Crown Office spokesman said prosecutors were “committed to ensuring that the facts and circumstances surrounding the death of Sheku Bayoh are fully aired in an appropriate legal forum and, to that end, it has discussed possible next steps with a small number of colleagues in the justice system”.

Deborah Coles, the director of Inquest, said a public inquiry was necessary. “We recognise there are far greater issues about the circumstances of Sheku’s death, the dangerous use of restraint but also the fact that Sheku was a young black man restrained by white police officers. And the issue of race, we feel, is particularly relevant here.”