Ex-lord advocate ‘knew race would be at centre of Sheku Bayoh probe’
The former lord advocate who oversaw the initial probe into the death of Sheku Bayoh has told an inquiry he knew immediately that “issues of racial motivation were going to be front and centre of the investigation”.
Frank Mulholland brought up the loss of public trust caused by the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence and said he had “no regrets” about how he dealt with Mr Bayoh’s family, and would do the same again.
Mr Bayoh, 31, a father-of-two, died after he was restrained on the ground by six police officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on May 3 2015 after being arrested when he was high on drugs.
The Sheku Bayoh inquiry is examining the circumstances leading to his death, how police dealt with the aftermath, the investigation into his death, and whether race was a factor.
Mr Mulholland, 65, who was head of Scotland’s prosecution service between 2011 and 2016 and chaired a diversity unit, gave evidence to the inquiry yesterday. He said he knew the case would be “high profile” as soon as he heard about it.
He used the comparison of the racist murder of teenager Mr Lawrence in London in 1993.
He also mentioned Lanarkshire murder victim Surjit Singh Chhokar, whose killer was convicted 18 years after his death in 1998 at a retrial after Mr Mulholland reopened the case following the reformation of double jeopardy laws in 2011.
Mr Mulholland said he was “surprised” that the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) did not launch “an active investigation” into race over Mr Bayoh’s death.
Mr Mulholland told the inquiry Mr Bayoh’s relatives are “a nice family” who “didn’t ask to be propelled into this”, and justified a decision to share evidence through solicitor Aamer Anwar, who he said he had worked with closely and trusted.
He said: “As lord advocate I was going to do everything that I could under my watch, which is why I liaised and listened to the family of Sheku Bayoh, I don’t regret it, and if it happened tomorrow I would do the same thing.”