Sheku Bayoh family invited to identify experts to investigation

The family of Sheku Bayoh, who was killed in police custody in May, have been given the opportunity to appoint experts to assist the investigation into his death.

The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC), Kate Frame, met with Mr Bayoh’s relatives yesterday morning, a week after they met with Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland QC.

The family lawyer Aamer Anwar released a statement following the meeting which said the family’s confidence in PIRC had been “shattered”.

On Sunday, they will join a march and rally assembling outside Kirkcaldy Town House to demand an end to “impunity for deaths in custody”.

The statement added: “The family welcome the Scottish government’s national review of Police Scotland, but if it is to be more than a cosmetic exercise then they cannot afford for Pirc to be seen publicly as a toothless regulator which only serves to whitewash police wrongdoing.”

However, the family has now been invited to appoint experts to aid the investigation into Mr Bayoh’s cause of death and the circumstances of it.

A recent post-mortem examination of Mr Bayoh was “inconclusive”, prompting further investigation by a number of forensic pathologists who are being drafted in by the Lord Advocate - some from outwith the country.

A spokesperson for PIRC said yesterday: “The commissioner today invited the family to participate in the process of identifying additional experts.

“Once all expert reports are completed they will be passed to the Lord Advocate for his consideration.

“The commissioner reassured the family that she and her team of investigators are objectively exploring all lines of inquiry and has encouraged the family to contribute to that process.”