A FORMER crime agency chief has criticised the way police handled the case of man who died in custody sparking a wave of protests.

 

Labour MSP Graeme Pearson, a former police officer and ex director general of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, said there should have a set planned response in place and available for senior police following he death of Sheku Bayoh.

Mr Bayoh - a father of two - died in custody after an incident in Kirkcaldy, Fife, in as yet unexplained circumstances involving up to nine officers.

A female officer was injured in the alleged incident a month ago.

Mr Pearson said a senior officer would have been expected to have been deployed to the scene at an early stage, and that there were concerns over the family's claim that five accounts of what happened had been offered by officers.

He said: "From the outset Police Scotland should have had a senior officer on the scene to give some kind of account of the facts.

"There should have been a prepared report for the public and this was absent. From there on it was going to be difficult."

Hundreds of people turned out at Mr Bayoh's funeral last week in Kirkcaldy to support the family of the 31-year-old gas engineer whose death is now being investigated by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC).

However the new police watchdog was criticised after it said it was unable to question officers involved until weeks after the incident, although a legal representative for the police involved said they all would have been keen to cooperate from the outset but it was the responsibility of PIRC to declare the officers' status and "that is a basic legal requirement" that had prevented this.

The family's lawyer, Aamer Anwar, said they have "tried desperately to keep an open mind on what happened".

He said: "The family have remained dignified but are full of rage because they are not asking for anything special.

"They are entitled to answers."

Mr Bayoh's mother Aminata Bayoh, who travelled from Sierra Leone after her son's death, said: "We want the truth, nothing but the truth."

It is understood an initial call related to a man armed with a knife, and that a number of officers attended the incident.

Police Scotland has been embroiled in controversy since the death of Mr Bayoh.

A police division at the centre of the investigation into the death in custody was the subject of an assault allegation nearly every two weeks last year, it has emerged.

Figures show that during 2014 there were 22 allegations of police assault in the Fife area but Police Scotland has refused to reveal details of which police stations were involved prompting criticism over a lack of transparency.

It was also reported that residents living next to the place where Mr Bayoh was first held by police have told that officers came back to search the area the day after his death.

People living in the surrounding streets are said to have been questioned by detectives as well as the police watchdog since Mr Bayoh died.

Police Scotland said they are unable to comment on the case while the investigation is ongoing.