Restraint 'probably' contributed to man's death

The "highly inappropriate" manner in which officers put a man into the back of a police van "probably contributed to his death", an inquest jury has concluded.

Robert Gracey, 39, of Morton Terrace, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, died in the early hours of 29 September 2021 at Lincoln County Hospital.

Jurors heard he had become unresponsive in the van having earlier been restrained by officers after banging on the window of Gainsborough Police Station.

Mr Gracey's wife, Zoe Gracey, said: "He was scared and a human being in need of help. Lessons must be learned from our loss."

On Thursday, Mr Gracey's medical cause of death was confirmed by the jury to be the effects of cocaine, restraint and struggle against restraint, and a scarred heart.

During the inquest, held at the Myles Cross Centre in Lincoln, the jury was shown body-worn camera footage of police officers restraining Mr Gracey and putting him in the back of a police van hours before his death.

In a statement read out in court on 5 December, Garry Firth, who was a police officer at the time but has since retired, admitted to punching Mr Gracey twice to "distract him" while he was resisting being put in the van.

In the statement, Mr Firth said he thought Mr Gracey may have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs and was behaving in an "aggressive manner".

After placing Mr Gracey into the van, Mr Firth and PC Nicky Briscoe were travelling to Lincoln Police Station when Mr Gracey became unresponsive. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The jury concluded there had been a "failure to treat the situation as a medical emergency" after Mr Gracey had been handcuffed and prior to leaving the scene.

On 10 December, the jury heard Dr Stephen Morley's toxicology report showed that high levels of cocaine were found in Mr Gracey's blood.

On the same day, Dr Jasmeet Soar, a consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care, told the jury he believed Mr Gracey had experienced a cardiac arrest before he died.

Dr Soar said cocaine use "increased his risk of death" and the "stress of the interaction with the police was an additional significant, causative factor in his death".

Dr Stuart Hamilton, a forensic pathologist, told the jury he believed the cause of death was a "combination of the use of cocaine, the underlying heart disease and sequence of events that occurred".

"I believe it is plausible that, with or without restraint, he could have died," Dr Hamilton added.

On Thursday, the jury of nine found the initial restraint used to restrain Mr Gracey in the garden was "reasonable and appropriate".

"However, the force used to place Mr Gracey into the back of the van was highly inappropriate," it said.

The jury also concluded there was a "missed opportunity to undertake a time-critical transfer of Mr Gracey to A&E where it may have been possible to provide earlier medical intervention".

A majority vote from the jury found it was "unacceptable" that there had not been a "dedicated officer monitoring Mr Gracey in the back of the van".

The inquest previously heard suggestions Mr Gracey was suffering from acute behavioural disturbance (ABD) - an umbrella term for the presentation of a number of conditions, according to College of Policing guidelines.

In terms of police training on ABD, the jury said in a majority vote that training prior to 29 September 2021 "only included extreme cases" and officers should have "suspected ABD" but there was a "lack of de-escalation".

Mr Gracey's wife told the inquest: "Rob was a good man, loved and missed by his family, and we have been heartbroken to learn that in the last hour of his life police officers called him all sorts of awful names and subjected him to a great deal of violence."

Speaking to the family at the end of the inquest, Coroner Paul Smith said: "If these events were to be repeated today one hopes the outcome would be rather different."

27 September 2021

• Mr Gracey pulls the oven out of a kitchen unit and wraps his mobile devices in foil.
• Police find him outside his home in a paranoid and anxious state shortly after 18:00 BST. He is detained by officers and taken to hospital, where he tells staff he has taken cocaine.

28 September 2021

• Mr Gracey is released from hospital and tells his housemate he is struggling with his mental health.

29 September 2021

• Mr Gracey makes two 999 calls to police. Officers attend his home but leave after he refuses to speak to them. He then goes to Gainsborough Police Station but runs off. He runs to his neighbour's house.
• At about 00:45, Mr Gracey is restrained by six officers and put in a police van with handcuffs and leg restraints.
• At 01:09, while being taken to hospital, his handcuffs and leg restraints are removed.
• Five minutes later, he becomes unresponsive and officers call for an ambulance. He arrives at hospital at 01:52 and is pronounced dead at 02:14.

Clarification 23 December: This article originally explained that Mr Gracey became unresponsive in the van having earlier been restrained by officers after banging on the window of Gainsborough Police Station and has been updated to include a detailed timeline of events leading up to this incident to give more context to Mr Gracey's subsequent restraint by police and death.

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