A TV documentary has “raised questions” about how police treated a man who died in custody.
Father-of-two Sheku Bayoh, 31, died in 2015 after being restrained by police in Kirkcaldy.
The BBC claims that CCTV and documents obtained through its Disclosure series casts doubt on some of the officers’ accounts of events.
The programme, which aired last night, claimed that the first officers on scene “escalated the situation instead of trying to defuse it” while CCTV footage cast doubt on claims that Mr Bayoh kicked and stamped on a female officer.
The BBC said the show provided evidence that “Mr Bayoh’s actions were exaggerated in official police documents”.
In October, his family were told by the Lord Advocate there wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute any of the officers involved.
Mr Bayoh’s sister, Kadi Johnson, said: “There was no need for Sheku to have died that day. We just want to know how our brother died, that’s all.”
That morning, Mr Bayoh had taken drugs which dramatically altered his behaviour, and he became aggressive.
He later left home with a knife, and neighbours called the police, though he discarded the weapon by the time officers arrived.
Mr Bayoh, who was originally from Sierra Leone, was restrained by six officers and died soon after.
Mr Bayoh suffered 23 separate injuries including a cracked rib, head wounds consistent with baton strikes, and petechial haemorrhages, or burst blood vessels in the eyes, which can be a sign of positional asyphyxia, or suffocation.
Cause of death was noted as “sudden death in a man intoxicated…[drugs] whilst under restraint.”
Days after his death, the Scottish Police Federation lawyer Peter Watson told the media that “a petite female police officer was subjected to a violent and unprovoked attack by a very large man who punched, kicked and stamped on her.”
The Scottish Police Federation, which represents some of the officers involved said it would be inappropriate to comment until all legal processes were complete.
