The chair of the public inquiry into the death in police custody of Sheku Bayoh has condemned as “despicable” the racist abuse directed towards the family of the deceased man.
In his opening remarks as the inquiry entered its second stage on Tuesday morning, Lord Bracadale said: “Recently it has been reported to me that the family of Sheku Bayoh and their solicitor have been subjected to racist abuse. I am sure that everyone associated with this inquiry will agree with me that such behaviour is despicable and entirely unacceptable. In some instances, it may amount to hate crime.”
He added: “In every instance, it causes the recipients and members of their family, some of whom may be quite young, pain, distress and harm. The families of Sheku Bayoh remain at the heart of this inquiry. The inquiry strongly condemns such treatment of them and calls for it to cease.”
Speaking at a vigil outside Capital House in Edinburgh, where the inquiry is taking place, Bayoh’s sister Kadi Johnson revealed that she had received abusive messages “even up to last night”, and welcomed Bracadale’s condemnation. In September, the family’s solicitor, Aamer Anwar, revealed that he has received a death threat to “blow his brains out” as a result of his work on the case.
Bayoh died after being restrained by officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on 3 May 2015, and the inquiry marks the first major public examination of institutional racism in Scotland since the Black Lives Matter movement galvanised around the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
The father of two died after police officers responded to reports of a black man in an agitated state carrying a knife. He was hit with batons, CS spray and pepper spray, then restrained on the pavement with wrist and leg ties. A postmortem documented 23 separate injuries to his body. A toxicology report confirmed that Bayoh had taken some drugs that night, but no bladed weapon was found.
Johnson said: “It has been a tough journey and along the way we have faced a lot of disappointment as well as racist abusive messages, even up to last night I had racist messages sent to me. But we welcome a meeting with Lord Bracadale yesterday and his condemnation of the racist abuse to our family and threats made to our lawyer.
“We are in for a long haul with the inquiry and your support gives me the strength and the courage to keep pressing on till justice prevails.”
Bracadale also told the inquiry, which started taking evidence in May of this year, that he anticipated hearings would continue through 2023 and into the early part of 2024 in order to thoroughly examine the immediate circumstances leading up to Bayoh’s death, how the police dealt with the aftermath, the following investigation, and whether race was a factor.
