No police officers will face court over death
NO police officers will face criminal or misconduct proceedings over the Taser death of Jordan Begley, an investigation has concluded.
The 23-year-old factory worker died in hospital from cardiac arrest two hours after an incident involving GMP officers at his home in Gorton in 2013. He was also punched and restrained by officers who had been called to a disturbance on Beard Road and believed Jordan had a knife.
His death prompted a legal saga that has finally come to a conclusion after five years of wrangling.
The police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), originally concluded that no officer had a case to answer. But as a result of evidence heard in an inquest in 2015, the IOPC asked for their own ruling to be quashed by the High Court and ordered a reinvestigation in November 2016.
A final report has now been published with the results of the second investigation, led by Deputy Director General Ian Todd. It has concluded that Pc Terence Donnelly, who fired the Taser for at least eight seconds, would have had a case to answer for gross misconduct. However, he resigned from the force in March this year.
Jordan’s mother Dot Begley, 50, was made aware that no officer would face criminal charges earlier this summer. She said she was ‘fuming,’ adding: “We are working on our next steps legally, but we will not be letting this go.
“Five years later, I’m still fighting for him,” Ms Begley told the BBC. “I’ve never been this angry in my life. Where do I go from here? It’s not going to go away.”
The IOPC also suggested Pc Lee Moore should face ‘management action’ for his conduct at Jordan’s inquest, which GMP has agreed to.
This relates to Pc Moore’s evidence in front of Jordan’s family in which he described a ‘Hamlet moment’ shortly after Jordan was handcuffed as the officers considered the situation.
According to the IOPC report, this is believed to be a reference to the Hamlet cigar advertising campaign which features ‘men in a variety of challenging situations who relax and smile after lighting a Hamlet cigar.’ The IOPC said Pc Moore was accused of having breached professional standards with the use of the phrase.
In his account to the IOPC, Pc Moore explained he first heard the term in the military to describe ‘a brief period of reflection and assessment during intense scenarios and training.’
It was never used in a derogatory sense and he had never perceived it in that way, Pc Moore said. He also stated he had used this phrase during the inquest to describe the situation ‘whilst under the pressure of a courtroom, in my own words.’
The IOPC did not find evidence to substantiate a case to answer for misconduct for the four other officers investigated: Pc Peter Fox, Pc David Graham, Pc Christopher Mills and Pc Andrew Wright. All had been given notice they were under investigation for alleged gross misconduct.