IPCC to take over investigation into complaint against van officers

The IPPC are to independently investigate a complaint by Claris Powell, made following the jury’s verdict at the Inquest into the death of her son, Mikey, in a police van on the way to a police station.

The IPCC made this decision on 27 May 2011, after Claris Powell threatened to judicially review their decision to allow West Midlands Police themselves to investigate the complaint against their own officers.

An Inquest jury found on December 18 2009 that Mikey had died in the back of a police van of positional asphyxia. The jury found that Mikey had been put in the police van on his side; that he had been transported to the police station “in between” being on his side and on his front; and that he was “on his front” when he arrived at the police station. The danger of positional asphyxia is greater to someone on their front than on their side.

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from a Press Release by: INQUEST
15th December 2010

Claris Powell, mother of Mikey Powell, has made a police complaint that the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police has misled the Police Authority in his report on the inquest into the death of Mikey Powell and failed to take any action as a result of the verdict.

Mikey Powell was handcuffed by police and put on the floor of a police van which drove to Thornhill Road Police Station in Birmingham in September 2003.

The jury found in December 2009 that Mikey Powell died of positional asphyxia in the back of a police van and that he was lying on his front on arrival at the police station, contrary to the van officers’ evidence at the inquest.

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