The family of a young father who died in police custody have called on the lord advocate to release footage of the moment he was pinned to the ground (Georgie Keate writes).
Sheku Bayoh, 31, died on May 3 after he was restrained by officers responding to an incident in Kirkcaldy, Fife, at 7am.
His death is being investigated by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc), which gave an interim report to Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland earlier this month.
Yesterday, Mr Bayoh’s relatives held face-to-face talks with Mr Mulholland at the Crown Office in Edinburgh, where they informed him that after 16 weeks they had “lost confidence” in the Pirc investigation. They also asked for the footage of Mr Bayoh’s “last moments” to be released.
“Relevant CCTV footage has been secured including mobile phone footage from civilians,” said the family’s lawyer, Aamer Anwar. “The family has requested that the lord advocate release that CCTV footage to stop the poisonous and systematic leaking of material to the media by police sources.”
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The Crown Office said it would take the Pirc report into account when carrying out its own investigations and would assess whether there should be a criminal prosecution.