82
Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
Amnesty International September 2001
January 1999 after being detained under the Mental
Health Act and restrained by eight Metropolitan
Police officers. The High Court decided that the
family’s request for the disclosure of the findings of
the police investigation, including medical evidence,
would be met by holding the inquest. The High Court
stated that the inquest would also allow the
prosecution authorities to reconsider the decision in
the light of the evidence presented at the inquest.
Counsel for the family of Roger Sylvester noted that
at the inquest the police officers allegedly involved,
who may be prosecuted, would be allowed “to see all
the evidence tested, and actually have a kind of
rehearsal”. The inquest into Roger Sylvester’s death is
unlikely to take place before October 2001.
Harry Stanley (update)
In March it was reported that the family of Harry
Stanley was applying for judicial review of the CPS
decision, taken in December 2000, not to prosecute
the officers who shot him. Harry Stanley was shot
dead by an armed response unit of the London
Metropolitan Police on 22 September 1999 in East
London, while he was walking home. He was
unarmed. To date, the family of Harry Stanley has
been refused access to all the information emerging
from the investigation.
Christopher Alder (update)
In April the CPS decided not to bring manslaughter
charges against the five officers allegedly involved in
the death of Christopher Alder, a black ex-paratrooper
who died on 1 April 1998 in Queens Gardens Police
Station, in Hull. The decision was taken despite an
inquest jury’s verdict in July 2000 that he was
“unlawfully” killed. CCTV video evidence showed
that he was left unconscious, face down on the floor
of the custody suite, for over 10 minutes and that even
though he had been incontinent and his rattling
breathing was audible on the video, police officers
speculated for several minutes that he might be faking,
before calling an ambulance. The CPS is still
considering whether to bring charges for “misconduct
in public office amounting to wilful neglect”. The
family of Christopher Alder is considering whether to
apply for judicial review of the CPS decision not to
bring manslaughter charges.
Death in prison custody
Alton Manning
Alton Manning, a 33-year-old black remand prisoner,
died in December 1995 after a struggle with officers
in Blakenhurst Prison in Worcestershire, England. In
1996 the CPS decided not to bring charges against any
of the prison officers allegedly involved in restraining
him. In March 1998 an inquest jury ruled that Alton
Manning had been unlawfully killed after prison
officers restrained him in a neck-lock, leading to
positional asphyxia, during a violent struggle. After
the inquest, seven officers were suspended. The
findings of the inquest were referred to the CPS for
further consideration, but in 1999 the CPS confirmed
that no prosecutions would be brought for Alton
Manning’s death. The matter was referred back to the
CPS on 17 May 2000 by the Divisional Court, after
the deceased’s family brought a successful judicial
review of the previous CPS decision not to bring
charges. On 1 June 2001 the CPS again announced
that it would not be prosecuting any prison officer for
the death.
Child soldiers
By the end of June, the UK had still not ratified the
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of
the Child on the involvement of children in armed
conflict (see AI Index: EUR 01/001/2001).
In June a verdict of accidental death was returned
at the inquest into the death of Wayne Richards, a 17-
year-old Royal Marine recruit (see United Kingdom:
U-18s: Report on recruitment and deployment of child
soldiers, AI Index: EUR 45/57/00). Wayne Richard
was in the ninth week of a 12-week course at the Royal
Marine training centre at Lympstone, Devon. He was
shot dead with live ammunition on 31 March 2000
during a night exercise during which only blank
ammunition should have been used. It emerged at the
inquest that up to13 live rounds were fired by a
corporal who was unaware that the weapon was
loaded with live ammunition. A troop training team
member admitted at the inquest that there appeared to
have been a “catalogue of errors” on the exercise
regarding the use of live weapon and live rounds. The
jury reportedly referred to non-compliance with
orders and poor implementation of safety procedures.
Before the inquest the CPS had decided that there
was insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of
conviction against anyone involved in the exercise.
Following the inquest’s findings, Wayne Richards’
father was considering launching both a civil action
and a private prosecution and said that the CPS should
re-examine the case.
Freedom of expression: Trial of David Shayler
In April AI sent a legal observer to the preliminary
hearing of the trial of David Shayler, a former MI5
(security services) agent. He faces charges under the
Official Secrets Act, after making a series of
allegations in 1997 and thereafter about the
misconduct of security and intelligence agencies (see
AI index: EUR 01/03/00 and EUR 01/001/2001). At
the preliminary hearing the defence, claiming that the
Official Secrets Act is inconsistent with the Human
Rights Act, maintained that David Shayler should be
entitled to argue at trial that the disclosures which he
had made were in the public interest. The judge ruled
that the defendant is not entitled to argue in court that
his revelation of state secrets was in the public interest.
The defence was going to appeal the judge’s decision
in July.
N O R T H E R N I R E L A N D