POLICE YET TO RECEIVE POST-MORTEM RESULTS OF CUSTODY DEATH
Police Commissioner Frank Prendergast. Photo credit: SIBC.
Police are yet to receive the post-mortem results of a young man who died last month while under police arrest.
Commissioner of Police Frank Prendergast says an independent inquiry will be conducted soon after the post mortem results are released.
Mr. Prendagast says they will hand over all evidence to the Magistrate Court who will decide when to start the inquiry.
A Magistrate will conduct the inquiry under the Fire and Death Act.
“So the Act is really for the Court to look into the circumstances around, in this case, a death so they’ll hold an open inquiry and the Magistrate can inquire into what was the cause in the circumstances of the death so in a normal event the Police would be required to submit a brief of evidence or a report and then people can be called before that hearing to answer questions so it’s an independent inquiry, it’s independent of the Police so that Act has been in existence for a long time and it seems to have fallen into a bit of disuse but then there’s an intention to revive it.”
The deceased who died in the Central watch-house late last month was the 23-year-old son of a former diplomat.