A jury hearing the case against a police sergeant and two detention officers accused of killing a man, who had mental health problems, while in custody have been told to focus on the charges and ignore any wider issues.
Thomas Orchard, 32, suffered a cardiac arrest and brain damage caused by oxygen starvation after an emergency response belt (ERB) was wrapped around his head. He had been arrested and restrained at Heavitree Road police station in Exeter on suspicion of a public order offence.
During the trial at Bristol crown court, jurors asked a series of questions relating to the police and mental health services.
But Mr Justice King, summing up, warned the panel not to become “engrossed” in topics that were irrelevant to their task.
He told them: “You have asked a number of questions about the responsibilities of those in senior positions higher up than the defendants in the Devon and Cornwall force and of the force itself. You have asked about bodies concerned with the provision of mental heath services. You have asked about whether internal reviews have been made by the force into the events.
“You should not be deflected by these considerations which cannot assist you in the decisions you have to reach in this case on this indictment. This is not a wide ranging public enquiry into the events of 3 October 2012 with a mandate to identify those who might in some way be thought to be responsible for those events.
“Your task is confined to deciding on the evidence whether the charges faced by each of these defendants on this indictment have been made out or not.”
Sgt Jan Kingshott, 44, and detention officers Simon Tansley, 38, and Michael Marsden, 55, deny manslaughter. They have argued that the force they used on Orchard was proportional and lawful.
They say the American-made ERB was used to stop Orchard from biting or spitting at them and that it was an approved piece of equipment supplied to them by Devon and Cornwall police for that purpose.
The prosecution claims the ERB was wrapped tightly around Orchard’s face when he was carried in a prone position and then placed face-down in a cell, and they allege it restricted his ability to breathe.
King told the jury it was important to decide the facts fairly and dispassionately. “This case involves the tragic death of a vulnerable young man suffering from symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia who you may think cannot be held to blame for any of his irrational or manic behaviour on 3 October.
“However in reaching your verdicts you must put out of your mind any sympathy you may have for Mr Orchard in the position he was in or any like sympathy for his family, who have of course suffered a tragic loss. Equally, any sympathy you may have for any of the defendants in the predicament in which he finds himself facing serious criminal charges can play no part in you deliberations.”
The judge said CCTV footage showing the way Orchard was handled in the police station was central to the case. The Guardian led a successful legal battle for the footage and stills of the incident to be released and published.
The trial continues.
