Police officer tells panel man who died in custody seemed ‘out of breath’

A Metropolitan Police officer who is accused of dishonesty over the death of a man in police custody has told a misconduct hearing panel the detainee seemed “out of breath” shortly before he lost consciousness.

Pc Elizabeth McAleenan, alongside her colleague Pc Danielle Barnes, is accused of having failed to ensure the welfare of a member of the public after Kevin Clarke, a relapsing paranoid schizophrenic, died in police custody at Lewisham Hospital in 2018.

It is alleged Pc McAleenan and Pc Barnes gave evidence that “was both dishonest and lacked integrity” at an inquest into Mr Clarke’s death, which, on October 9 2020, found the decision by police to use restraints on Mr Clarke “escalated the situation to a medical emergency” and contributed to his death.

The inquest jury at the time had reviewed body-worn camera footage and found that it was “highly likely” that at least one officer heard Mr Clarke say “I can’t breathe” on more than one occasion.

Both Pc McAleenan and Pc Barnes deny the allegations, saying they did not hear Mr Clarke say these words at the time.

Speaking to a misconduct panel in central London on Monday, Pc McAleenan described Mr Clarke as being “out of breath” during the incident – but insisted she had not heard him say that he was not able to breathe.

She said: “He was clearly very unwell, we just wanted to get him to A&E as soon as possible.

“If I heard him say ‘I can’t breathe’, I would have told so to my colleagues.”

Pc McAleenan said it was “noisy” at the scene of the incident, due to the number of officers present and their radios going off at the same time, which made it “difficult” to hear Mr Clarke.

She said: “He seemed to be repeating stuff and he was out of breath at that point because he had been resisting the restraint.”

Mr Clarke died on March 9 2018 following the incident in the Polsted Road area of Catford, south-east London.

During the incident, Mr Clarke, then aged 35, was restrained by up to nine officers after he was found lying on the ground in a playing field, acting strangely.

He was put into handcuffs and leg restraints and lost consciousness as he was taken to an ambulance.

Pc McAleenan, who had only been a police officer for six months at the time, told the misconduct panel she watched her body-worn camera footage “at least 20 or 30 times”, and added she did not consider Mr Clarke may have been saying the words “I can’t breathe” until it was suggested during the inquest.

She said: “Sometimes when I reviewed it, I could hear that that’s what he could have been saying.

“I’m not ever going to know, unfortunately, that that is what he said – when I listen to it, it’s not clear to me what he is saying.”

Amy Clarke, a solicitor on behalf of the Met Police, suggested to Pc McAleenan: “You are close enough there that you must have heard him say, ‘I can’t breathe’.”

Pc McAleenan replied: “I was paying as much attention as I could and trying my best to understand him – and I didn’t understand that.”

Pc McAleenan added that she was aware of the risk of positional asphyxia at the time – when a detainee is restrained in such a position he is unable to breathe properly.

However, she stated that she and her colleagues turned Mr Clarke to his side after handcuffing him so as to allow him to breathe.

She said: “I was checking on his breathing, and other officers were telling me to check on his breathing as well.”

The hearing continues.