Anger from family of depressive who died after restraint by police!UK: The family of Roger Sylvester, who died after being restrained by police officers, yesterday expressed their disappointment at a decision by the Crown Prosecution Service not to prosecute any of the officers involved.
Mr Sylvester, from Tottenham, north London, died more than six years ago after being handcuffed and restrained for around 20 minutes by up to eight officers who had detained him under the Mental Health Act.
The CPS yesterday announced that criminal charges would not be brought against the officers due to "insufficient evidence".
In a statement released through the campaigning organisation Inquest, the family said: "We are disappointed but not surprised at the decision announced by the CPS. Throughout the period of over six years since Roger's death in custody, we have faced a criminal justice system that has been persistently unable and unwilling to bring its own to account."
A CPS spokesman said the decision had been reached following "very careful and lengthy consideration" of the case. He said: "There is insufficient evidence to justify the prosecution of any person in relation to the tragic death of Roger Sylvester."
Police were called to the home of Mr Sylvester, 30, who suffered from manic depression, in January 1999 after neighbours reported a disturbance.
He was taken to hospital where up to eight officers restrained him for 20 minutes while waiting for a doctor to finish dealing with another patient.
Mr Sylvester collapsed from respiratory failure and fell into a coma. His life support machine was switched off seven days later.
An inquest verdict which found that he had been unlawfully killed was overturned in the high court last year after the judge expressed concern about the coroner's summing up and some of the reasons given by the jury for its verdict. The eight officers, who had been suspended while the investigation was carried out, were reinstated.
Referring to the original inquest verdict, the Sylvester family said: "For our part, we find greater force in that pronouncement by members of the public who heard all the evidence than upon the subjective view of a decision-maker within the CPS that has yet to prove its willingness or ability to allow justice to be done in cases of deaths in custody."
They also criticised the investigation into the circumstances surrounding Sylvester's death, led first by the Metropolitan police and then by Essex police, as an "exercise in mitigation of the officers", rather than a rigorous investigation into a potential murder.
Three of the officers involved in the initial investigation were found guilty of neglect of duty after an official complaint by the family, who fear that vital evidence was lost.
Deborah Coles, co-director of Inquest, who has worked with the Sylvester family for the past six years, said errors in the investigation had shaped the CPS's decision.
She said: "Roger Sylvester was a young healthy black man who died because of the fatal restraint used against him by police officers. This sends out a clear message that police officers are above the law."
By Laura Smith posted 20 June
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