England: Man died after being held in cell on ‘hottest day of the year’

In June 2017, Rafal Sochacki, 43, was held for almost five hours in Westminster Magistrates’ Court, which had faulty air conditioning, the BBC reports.

Prior to that, he had been in a custody van for more than two hours.

The jury heard that Mr Sochacki was sweating when he was transferred to the court. He was later spotted behaving oddly before he collapsed.

Mr Sochacki had been arrested on 19 June on the basis of a European Arrest Warrant in north London. No concerns were raised about his health while he was in police custody.

On 21 June he was taken to court in a custody van on what coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said was one of the “hottest days in central London for many years”.

He asked for water during the journey and was left in the vehicle at one point for 50 minutes. When he arrived at court at 09:51 he was sweating.

At about 2pm he “began to act oddly”. Forty-five minutes later he had collapsed.

Paramedic Peter Appleby who appeared on the scene measured a body temperature of 39.6C, considerably higher than the typical 36.9C, the court heard.

Mr Sochacki’s heart had stopped, efforts to revive him failed and he was declared dead at 16:15.

The inquest into his death is expected to last up to two weeks.