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UK: Police unlawfully killed black man

01 January 1992

An inquest jury has found that Oliver Pryce, who was asphyxiated after six police officers pinned him down in the back of a police van, was unlawfully killed. Pryce was arrested, in July 1989, after he had a nervous breakdown and threw himself at an ambulance on the Berwick Hill Estate in Middlesborough. Following the incident the Middlesborough Special Operations Squad arrived and, as an eye-witness told the inquest: "Seven policemen jumped out of the vans and pinned the black man to the ground, face- down. One of the policemen had the man's arm coiled around his neck and was pulling it back. The black man's mouth and eyes were wide open ... you could tell the policeman was pulling tight." At Middlesborough police station a post-mortem examination revealed that Pryce had choked to death. A representative of the group Inquest said that "Oliver's slow and painful death shows that the officers ... were clearly unable to cope with a black man. We heard all the stereotypes from the police during the inquest about drug-taking and violence. None of them were true." The coroner has sent the evidence to the Director of Public prosecution, who before the inquest rejected any prosecutions, for reconsideration. The police officers involved have been suspended from duty.

Independent, 23.11.91, 26.11.91, 27.11.91, 30.11.91; Guardian, 23.11.91, 30.11.91