Exclusive: watchdog urges charges over death in custody

The police watchdog has said that five officers should face gross misconduct charges over the death of Sean Rigg, the Guardian has learned.

The allegations include claims of excessive force being used against the mentally ill musician, who died in 2008 at Brixton police station, south London. The case has caused concern from the prime minister downwards.

The Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) believes the five officers should face allegations including the alleged use of excessive force and use of inappropriate restraint techniques, failing to identify and treat Rigg, 40, as suffering from mental health problems and failing to protect him from harm. The Met can reject the findings, but the police watchdog can direct a hearing be held.

The IOPC has already had to use that power in this case and said that the Met had to be ordered to hold a hearing against two of the five officers for claims they gave misleading evidence to an inquest jury and to investigators at the police watchdog. Those two are Sgt Paul White and PC Mark Harratt.

The other three officers recommended for disciplinary charges for their actions on the day Rigg was detained are PCs Richard Glasson, Matthew Forward and Andrew Birks, the last of whom says he is now ordained in the Church of England, while on suspension from the Met.

Rigg’s family have waged a decade-long battle and want the disciplinary hearing held as soon as possible. They believe justice requires officers being punished. Some in policing see the Rigg case as showing the difficulties of dealing with people who are suffering from serious mental health problems.

Sarah Green of the IOPC said: “I have directed the Metropolitan police to bring gross misconduct hearings for two officers in relation to allegations that they knowingly misled an inquest held into the death of Mr Rigg, and the IOPC during its investigation. I have also recommended that the Metropolitan police bring gross misconduct hearings for five officers over allegations relating to their actions on the day Mr Rigg was arrested and detained, and await a response from the MPS to our recommendations.”

An inquest jury in 2012 found that police officers used unsuitable and unnecessary force and their actions had contributed to Rigg’s death. He was held down in a V-shape in a prone position for eight minutes.

During the restraint he was placed face down, with his legs bent back, in a caged footwell of a police van. The jury found that Rigg was struggling but not violent and officers failed to spot the deterioration in his health. Rigg suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

The first police watchdog investigation was fatally flawed and cleared police of any wrongdoing. It took an inquest to expose flaws in that investigation.

Sgt White is the only officer to have faced a criminal trial over the case and was acquitted of perjury. The Crown Prosecution Service has decided the other four officers do not have a criminal case to answer.

Marcia Rigg, sister of the deceased musician, welcomed the news the officers should face disciplinary charges but said her pain had been exacerbated by a decade of delays: “There’s been no accountability and the decision they are making now should have happened 10 years ago. The damage and trauma caused to the family is unnecessary. I have had to fight every step of the way to force them to put the officers before a disciplinary hearing.”

There are potentially more battles ahead. The Met now has to decide if it will follow the IOPC recommendation or reject it. If it accepts it, a fresh fight looms over whether the hearing will be held in public or private.

Hearings in a high court case where Birks is seeking to overturn a ban on him retiring from the Met ended on Friday. If he wins his case he could not face disciplinary charges. Judgment in that case has been reserved and is expected next month.

The Met said it was content for PC Birks to receive his police salary while suspended while working for the Church of England, where he is now waiting for a posting as a reverend: “Officers who are suspended do receive their MPS salary. The MPS is content for him to work for the Church of England.

“The details of any financial agreement between them would not be for the MPS to make public.”

The Met said it would not say at this stage if it would bring gross misconduct proceedings against the five officers: “The MPS remains in correspondence with the IOPC regarding [whether] there is a case to answer for any of the officers. Until that is finalised it would not be appropriate to discuss this publicly.”