Account emerges as police bosses told to think again

BY SARAH VESTY A POLICE officer linked to the custody death of Sheku Bayoh told how she feared “a murder was about to take place” that night.

PC Nicole Short provided a written account detailing her recollection of the events of May 3, when she was called to Templehall, Kirkcaldy, at about 7.20am.

The 32-year-old, who has been signed off sick with post traumatic stress disorder since the incident in 2015, said police had taken calls about a black male with a knife.

She said she believed colleagues used tear gas spray on Sheku, 31, but said he reacted by “laughing and wiping it away”.

The details were revealed in an opinion notice by Lord Stephen Woolman, made public after a battle by PC Short for the right to retire early on medical grounds.

Her statement said: “He appeared out of control and dangerous.

“I was terrified that he was going to kill a member of the public if he was allowed to leave the street, which is what he was trying to do. I still fully believed that he had a knife in his possession.”

PC Short told how another colleague used spray on Sheku but it had no effect, prompting her to draw her police baton as he allegedly walked towards her. She said he was so close, she “decided to turn around and run”. She added: “I screamed, ‘Nooooo’. I knew that he was chasing me. I could hear him behind me and I knew from what he had said and the way he had moved towards me that he was going to hammer me.

“I felt an enormous blow to the back of my head over to the lower right side. I went flying. My feet actually left the ground and I landed on the ground almost at the other side of the road.” PC Short was taken to hospital before returning to Kirkcaldy Police Station.

Sheku was pronounced dead a short time later and a Police Investigations and Review Commissioner probe was launched. PC Short and PC Alan Paton, 44, who was also involved in the incident, asked the Scottish Police Authority for permission to retire due to ill health.

The SPA said it would not be in the “public interest” to allow it because of the probe into the “high-profile” death.

Lord Woolman sided with Short and Paton and told the SPA to reconsider. He said: “I conclude that the SPA’s reasons do not add up. There is an unabridged gap between the alleged involvement of the officers in a high-profile incident and the conclusion it was in the public interest that they should be prevented from retiring. The decision was therefore irrational.”

Aamer Anwar, solicitor for Sheku’s family, said May 3 is the fourth anniversary of his death. He added: “In all that time we have heard a great deal about the trauma of the officers in whose hands Sheku died but nothing of the impact on Sheku’s family.

“Nicole Short talks of the fear of a murder taking place. The reality is that there was only one person that day who died, Sheku Bayoh.

“Constable Short and Paton are now able to evade potential disciplinary proceedings, are unlikely to ever face criminal prosecution – but if they think Sheku’s life was so cheap that his family would walk away, they are mistaken.”

The SPA has been asked for comment.