The jury at the inquest of Martine Brandon, which concluded on 10 March, found serious police failures, including inadequate sharing of information among police officers and custody staff, inadequate observations, and that avoidable distress had been caused to her by having been left in her own faeces for six hours.
Following a mental health crisis, Martine was arrested and taken to Southampton Central Police Station where she committed suicide on 01/11/14. The Coroner commented detention under the Mental Health Act 1983 “would have been a better way to establish the cause of her problems” and made a ‘preventing future death’ report.
INQUEST’s press release on the case can be read here.
