Family demand answers over gentle giant’s cop van death
POLICE SCOTLAND COME UNDER FIRE Sergeant ‘asked dead woman to get in touch’
BY RUSSELL FINDLAY A POLICE sergeant sent an email to a mum 48 hours after the force were told she was dead.
Bev Johnson, 55, passed away in the arms of partner David Yeoman on May 13 and police were informed the following day.
Two days later, David, 60, received a police email addressed to Bev, asking her to get in touch.
He said: “The police admit they were officially notified of Bev’s death on May 14, so when this email arrived for her, it was crass and upsetting.
“It came from a sergeant, who asked Bev to contact him.
“I am certain it was not deliberate or malicious but I am surprised that it happened. Surely the police computer systems should be immediately updated in such circumstances.”
Mother-of-one Bev died suddenly at home in Aberfoyle, Perthshire, after BY ALAN McEWEN alan.mcewen@reachplc.com THE family of a man who died in a police van are demanding answers over the tragedy.
Stuart Clunie was put in the back of the van after being arrested over a domestic incident at his Edinburgh flat.
The 34-year-old, who had been attacked with a sword and axe two weeks earlier, was found “unresponsive” when officers arrived at the city’s St Leonards police station.
An ambulance was called and paramedics declared him dead.
Stuart’s family believe officers should have taken him to hospital instead of the police station.
They say he had been in terrible pain as the facial wounds he suffered in the axe attack were infected.
Stuart’s sister Jeanette, 49, said: “You knew by looking that it was infected. As far as I’m concerned, he was neglected in police custody. He should’ve been taken to hospital.”
Police arrived at Stuart’s home in Wardieburn Street West at about 8pm last Tuesday and arrested him.
The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) are investigating his death.
Post mortem results were “inconclusive”.
His mum, also Jeanette, 72, of Drylaw, Edinburgh, spoke to Stuart, an alcoholic, in the hours before his arrest.
She said: “He sounded really depressed. He was in lots of pain.” Stuart was stabbed in the back with a sword and hit in the face with an axe in Wardieburn Street West on
May 19, according to his mum. She said he had plastic surgery at St John’s Hospital in Livingston.
Stuart’s sister added: “He signed himself out against doctor’s advice. His injuries were quite extreme.
“His nose had been hanging off.”
The family said Stuart was given antibiotics on the Friday before he died.
He had been in rehab for alcoholism but had relapsed.
Stuart’s dad George, 71, a retired brewery worker, said: “He’d stopped shaving, stopped having baths.”
Stuart’s mum, who described him as a “gentle giant”, wants to know why police didn’t take her dishevelled son to hospital.
She said: “We just want answers.”
A PIRC spokesman said a report on Stuart’s death will be submitted to the procurator fiscal.
A police spokesman said officers, custody staff and a custody nurse gave Stuart first aid.
The spokesman added: “Inquiries are continuing to establish the full circumstances surrounding this death.”
Police have submitted a report to the fiscal over the axe attack. No arrests have been made.