Documentary reveals lawsuit plan
Lawyers for the family say the move will allow them to question officers on the events leading up to his death in May 2015. The dad of two, originally from Sierra Leone, was pronounced dead following an incident with up to nine officers in a street near his home in Kirkcaldy. A BBC documentary to be screened on Tuesday follows his family as they seek answers over his death. In the film, the family’s lawyer Aamer Anwar says: “We’re intending to launch a civil action against Police Scotland and officers involved.” The off icers on the scene had responded to reports of a man carrying a knife.
Sheku, 31, was subdued with leg and arm restraints, CS spray and batons and pronounced dead in hospital two hours later.
Traces of Ecstasy and a then legal high called APVP were found in his bloodstream later.
His death certificate gives the cause of death as “sudden death and intoxication by MDMA and APVP while being restrained”.
But family members believe Sheku died from positional asphyxiation.
In 2015, the Sunday Mail revealed the full extent of the injuries found on Sheku’s head, torso, arms and legs after his death.
In the documentary, his tearful partner Collette Bell says: “When I saw the diagram of all his injuries it broke my heart that my perfect man and his perfect face had been so hurt.”
A report by police watchdog PIRC has gone to the Crown Office but no decision on action has been taken.
Assistant chief constable Wayne Mawson said Pol ice Scotland remained committed to cooperating with the investigation. The documentary After Sheku is on BBC2 at 9pm on Tuesday.