Man dies following contact with police - Durham Constabulary, July 2016

At 1.03am on 24 July 2016 Durham city centre CCTV operators contacted Durham Constabulary to report an incident at a nightclub, saying that individuals were fighting with bar staff. Two police officers attended the nightclub and found door staff detaining two men outside the premises.

One of the men was lying face down, being restrained by a member of door staff. One of the officers handcuffed the man with his hands behind his back and rolled him over, to find that this face was blue and he was unresponsive. Officers started performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the man and requested urgent medical assistance.

The man was taken by ambulance to hospital in a critical condition. Later that day he was pronounced dead.

Our investigation team obtained CCTV evidence from the nightclub as well as local authority cameras and body-worn video footage from the officers involved in the incident. We interviewed the two officers directly involved in the incident and an independent witness. We also considered evidence gathered by the police as part of their investigation into the man’s death.

We considered the decision to handcuff the man and to then remove the handcuffs once officers realised the man was unwell.

The evidence suggested officers appeared on the scene within a reasonable time after being tasked to attend. Officers made appropriate efforts to clarify what had happened and began to deal with the man in a timely fashion. They called for medical assistance as soon as they realised the man was clearly seriously unwell. The investigation also found officers carried out appropriate and timely first aid and continued to try to help the man until medical assistance could take over completely.

The investigation concluded that the decision to handcuff the man was understandable and appropriate in the circumstances, as the (female) officers had been given information that they were dealing with two violent men (who may have been professional fighters). Officers had no support when they first arrived, and one of them was relatively inexperienced.

We were of the opinion that the failure to remove the handcuffs on recognising that the man was seriously unwell was understandable and appropriate in the circumstances. The officer took the view that it was better not to delay medical treatment by trying to remove the handcuffs. Independent medical evidence showed the handcuffs remaining on did not affect the outcome.

Based on the evidence available, we found no indication that any of the officers involved breached the standards of behaviour expected of them. We commended the actions of the officers involved in dealing with this incident.

After reviewing our report, Durham Constabulary agreed with our findings.

We concluded our investigation in May 2017 but waited until the end of the inquest into the man’s death (in October 2018) to publish our findings. The inquest recorded a narrative conclusion.