Sheku death probe: £200-an-hour QCs and 13 legal teams
‘We did go to Planet Earth as you ordered, but it was shut!’
AN army of lawyers is set to pocket a fortune from the forthcoming probe into Sheku Bayoh’s death.
The 31-year-old died near his home in Kirkcaldy, Fife, as he was restrained by police in May 2015.
The names of the judge-led public inquiry’s ‘core participants’ have now been published – including nine relatives of Mr Bayoh.
Four organisations are named, as are 12 police officers. At least 13 legal teams will be hired to represent the different parties.
The inquiry has also published a scale of fees, with senior QCs set to be paid up to £200 an hour.
With the inquiry expected to last up to four years, the legal fees are estimated to run to tens of millions of pounds – funded by taxpayers.
Mr Bayoh, a trainee British Gas engineer, was originally from Sierra Leone but moved to the UK when he was 11.
He had a son, then aged six months, with partner Collette Bell, and another boy, then four, by his ex, Connie Barcik. After Mr Bayoh was seen acting erratically in the street and carrying a knife, multiple calls were made to 999 and up to nine officers went to the scene.
After they confronted him, he was pinned to the ground.
Last year, the Crown Office said no officer involved in restraining Mr Bayoh would be prosecuted.
This decision is understood to be based on the statements of multiple witnesses who said the police acted proportionately, and on forensic evidence suggesting that high levels of illegal drugs found in his system contributed to his death. However, the inquiry is to investigate the case to establish what lessons, if any, can be learned.
The nine relatives of Mr Bayoh named as ‘core participants’ include his two sons, the mothers of his sons, and his sisters.
It is expected they will all be represented by a single team assembled by solicitor Aamer Anwar.
They will explore whether race played any part in his death. The 12 officers listed include two chief superintendents, Garry McEwan and Conrad Trickett, and temporary Assistant Chief Constable Pat Campbell, who were involved in managing the police response.
Chief Constable Iain Livingstone will also be a core participant.
The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, which took over the investigation on the day of Mr Bayoh’s death, will have a legal team, while the Scottish Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, will have its own representation. Lord Advocate James Wolffe, QC, is also listed.
While Mr Bayoh’s family are understood to support the inquiry, they are angry Mr Wolffe ruled out criminal charges for any officer and are likely to question this.
One senior legal source said: ‘How do we retain credibility if we learn the death was avoidable, that some of the action was malicious, or if we satisfy ourselves that a white man behaving in the same way as Mr Bayoh would not have died?’
The inquiry website outlines how much lawyers can expect to be paid. Solicitors’ rates run from £150 to £100 an hour. All can charge half of their hourly rate for travel.
Lawyers have around 50,000 documents to read before the hearings even start.
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘We must get to the truth about this tragic event.’
An inquiry spokesman confirmed that core participants were entitled to a lawyer of their choice, funded by the public purse.
He added: ‘The Scottish Government has not set a cap on costs.’
‘We must get the truth about this tragic event’