Nancy Collins, partner in Bindmans Public Law team, says:
Lewis was a much-loved family man. It has been very painful for his family to hear that police officers failed to treat him as requiring urgent medical assistance, despite knowing that this was necessary. The failures have undermined the family’s faith in police officers and their ability to protect individuals who need urgent medical treatment and care.
The inquest heard evidence that the police officers who had stopped and detained Lewis at 21:49 suspected that he had swallowed Class A drugs, which should have been treated as a medical emergency, according to their training and guidance.
Despite this, Lewis was detained in handcuffs in the back of a police car whilst a search of his car was conducted. The family’s opinion is that, despite the situation being one of a medical emergency, Lewis was not monitored for signs of a deterioration in his health.
The evidence at the inquest established that officers did not call for an ambulance or request a van specifically to take Lewis to hospital nor did they consider taking him to hospital by car, prior to him collapsing and becoming extremely unwell. After officers noticed that Lewis had become unwell at 22:17, upon exiting the vehicle he fell to the ground, hitting his head, whilst still handcuffed to the rear.
The officers requested a defibrillator at 22:19, but had to wait for a public defibrillator to be brought to the scene, because of the very limited provision of defibrillators in police vehicles. Moreover, there was confusion over whether or not Lewis was agonal breathing, until this was recognised by the officer who brought the defibrillator to the scene, who arrived at 22:26. CPR was commenced at 22:28, just prior to the arrival of a paramedic, who took over at 22:29. Tragically death was declared at the scene at 23:29.
Lewis’ loved ones describe him as a loving member of their very close family who went out of his way to care for them.
Lewis’ mother Alex has said:
We are broken without Lewis and life will never be the same again. We miss Lewis driving to our home at night to check if we are safe, we miss his jokes and his sense of humour. We miss his infectious smile and big blue eyes. There are so many things that we miss and there are not enough hours in the day to list them. As a family we cherish our memories of Lewis and the times we had together.
