“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

“Over the years it has become clear to the Bayoh family that the police, the PIRC and the Crown office has operated an unholy trinity of dishonesty and racism and incompetence betraying the word justice.” Aamer Anwar, Bayoh family lawyer

On 1 April 2013, Scotland was setting up a single police force. It also set-up the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, or PIRC. It would do its own investigations - pound pavements, knock doors and conduct interviews.

And - crucially - it would be independent from the police.

Independence – and allegations about the lack of it – has been a critical issue at the most recent hearings of the Sheku Bayoh Inquiry. Episode eight looks at the evidence heard so far from PIRC and the Crown about the independence of each organisation.

It includes evidence given about working relationships between police and PIRC officers investigating the Sheku Bayoh case, and the rationale of PIRC to share information about Bayoh’s’s post mortem with officers there at the time of his death.

Presenters Tomiwa Folorunso and Karin Goodwin also hear evidence on the Crown’s own independence and find out why it didn’t consider race as a factor in its approach to assessing whether potential criminality had taken place.

They also look into explosive revelations about intelligence gathered by Police Scotland on lawyer Aamer Anwer, and discovered by PIRC in the course of its investigation.

The watchdog found information held on Anwar was labelled “counter terrorism intelligence” though “there did not appear to be a legitimate reason or explanation for these practices”.

The Ferret continues its summary of the evidence heard so far in its multi-award-nominated podcast.

“Tense, moving and informative. This series is an essential listen that unflinchingly opens up a story about contemporary Scotland.” [Review]

Finalist for the British Journalism Awards, the Amnesty Media Awards and runner-up of Podcast of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards 2014.

To make this podcast we’ve spent hours listening to all of the evidence so we can summarise it for you, our listeners. And we need your support to do more.

Join us at theferret.scot/subscribe or contribute by giving us a donatation.

Credits:

This podcast is devised by Karin Goodwin, Halina Rifai and Tomiwa Folorunso

Presenters: Tomiwa Folorunso and Karin Goodwin

Writing: Karin Goodwin

Sound production, recording, editing & sound design: Halina Rifai

Original music by Alan Bryden

Listen to all the evidence from the Sheku Bayoh Inquiry, or find out how to get a ticket to attend in person at www.shekubayohinquiry.scot

"At the moment we are searching for truth, but ultimately the family want justice." Aamer Anwar, Bayoh family lawyer

On the first day of each new hearing in the Sheku Bayoh public inquiry there is now a ritual. Campaigners in support of the Bayoh family gather outside the building with banners and calls for justice.

When Kadi Johnston – Sheku's sister – arrives, she and family lawyer Aamer Anwar walk across the square towards Edinburgh's Capital House, where the inquiry takes place.

Before going through the doors, she stands in front of campaigners and takes the mic, thanking people for giving her "the strength and the energy to walk through those doors".

And then she takes her place in the public gallery.

This hearing in the long running inquiry focuses on Police Scotland training. It’s full of acronyms for police protocols and procedures, making it easy to lose sight of the family’s fight for justice. So this episode starts there.

Inquiry brings new revelations

But it also contains some startling new revelations about policing both back in 2015 and now.

We hear about senior Police Scotland officers' inclusion in a US conference with the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) – where they offered expertise on "the legal use of force" in the case of mental illness when someone is in possession of a knife...just days after Sheku's death.

And they admit that even today serious issues remain, including reports from senior officers that while procedure dictates they should treat acute behaviour disturbance – or ABD – as a medical emergency, police cannot always get an ambulance to attend.

There are also questions about training. For all the claims of revised process and protocol, if police got 999 calls from Hayfield Road, where Sheku died just now, how much would have changed?

The Ferret continues its summary of the evidence heard so far in its award-nominated podcast.

To make this podcast we’ve spent hours listening to all of the evidence so we can summarise it for you, our listeners. And we need your support to do more. Join us at theferret.scot/subscribe or contribute by giving us a donatation.

Read the script: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24408672-sheku-bayoh_-the-inquiry-episode-seven-hot-to-touch_script