The lawyer for the family of Sheku Bayoh, whose death in custody is the subject of a stalled public inquiry, has criticized “speculation and delusions of grandeur” from the Scottish Police Federation after suggestions that the investigation could be downgraded to a fatal accident inquiry.
In a press conference on Wednesday, the general secretary of the Federation, David Kennedy, and lawyer Peter Watson if there is a public inquiry – similar to an inquiry in England and Wales – has been ordered for the death in custody.
BAOH, 31, died in handcuffs and suffered multiple injuries after officers responded to a call of a man with a knife in Kirkcaldy, Fife, in May 2015.
A pathologist told the inquiry, which began in 2020, that a struggle while BAOHOH was conducted by at least six police officers was what caused his death. The Bayoh family reformed the police who were beaten and influenced by racial bias.
Last month the chair of the inquiry, Lord Braadale, stood as the arrivals in their final stage took all the evidence.
He faces a judicial review this month brought by the Federation over claims he unfairly held private meetings with Baoh’s family. He denied any bias and the long-running inquiry was marred by chaos, with Senior and Junior counsel resigning soon after.
Watson said: “The question for a new chair is the best to move forward … it is possible that a new chair can keep us asking.” He insists that “if race is a factor involved in the death, one fai can do that perfectly enough”.
Kennedy said the officials involved wanted the matter to be over and for it to be “open and transparent”, adding:
But one Aamer Anwar, the lawyer for the Baoh family, said: “I appreciate the press conference, as the urge to invite Scot
Anwar said an FAI would be narrower in scope because it would “examine the circumstances and causes leading up to a death but not what follows”. The public inquiry obtained hours of evidence on how the police, the policing waterdog and prosecutors managed the death of Bayoh.
Kennedy also criticized the first minister, John Swinney, who offered to meet with the Baoh family, saying he felt “completely deceived by the legal police, supported by Police Scotland and the Crown Office.
Kennedy said: “The intervention of the first minister confirms a fair and transparent investigation in which police officers with a person accused of a knife, we cannot stop accused of racism, we have no power to protect the public.”
Kennedy and Watson were joined at the press conference by former PC Nicole Short, one of the first officers on the scene, who agreed to a suggestion that the officers involved in the day were “contrabuised”.
He said he has nothing to hide and the issue of whether the police responses inspired by the Bayoh race is like “a question you will be asked for 10 years”.
“I want to see our names cleared because race is not a factor,” Short said.