Neal Saunders died after appropriate police restraint, jury finds

A man died after being appropriately restrained by police officers for an hour on the floor of his father's flat, an inquest jury has found.

Neal Saunders, 39, was detained when police were called to a reported assault at the address in Langley, Berkshire, in September 2020.

He died the following day at Wexham Park Hospital.

The jury at Reading Coroner's Court said his struggles against restraint contributed to his death.

Neal's father, Ron Saunders, made a 999 call on the night of 3 September, the inquest heard.

He told police: "My son's on dope and... he started attacking me and everything, going crazy in here".

It took six police officers to restrain Mr Saunders due to his "extreme strength", the court was told.

As well as being handcuffed, straps were placed around his legs at the ankles and knees, with an officer sitting on him using a baton to press down on the top of his legs, the hearing was told.

The jury viewed police body-worn video in which he told officers: "I can't even breathe."

Police suspected that Mr Saunders had Acute Behavioural Disturbance (ABD) and called for an ambulance, the court was told.

The roofer from Slough was restrained by four officers for 58 minutes, the inquest jury concluded.

Mr Saunders was carried to the ambulance in a prone position, despite police training that this was not medically advisable, the inquest was told.

In the ambulance he suffered a cardiac arrest while he was handcuffed to a stretcher and kept prone by a paramedic working for a private contractor, Polaris Medical.

In a unanimous verdict after two days of deliberating, the jury said: "The prone position was not causative of death but may have more than minimally contributed to it."

Berkshire Senior Coroner Heidi Connor recorded that his death resulted from multi-organ failure following a second cardiac arrest in hospital and his use of cocaine.

She said further factors included an earlier heart attack, agitation and resistance against restraint.

The coroner said she would consider writing a report to prevent future deaths including the issue of police training to deal with ABD patients.

She said: "There would have been ample time for police to check guidance [on ABD patients] but none of the officers on the scene thought to do that."

In a BBC interview, Ron Saunders said his son was a "right character", even as a baby.

"All Neal needed was a little sedation or something to calm him down," he said.

"I thought that maybe if I went in there, I might be able to calm the situation down a bit if he saw me.

"I did go in but they pushed me out again and they had him on the floor then and he was all strapped up.

"I feel terrible now. I feel so guilty and I have this every day now. This will go on until the day I die."

In a statement, Thames Valley Police said Mr Saunders was restrained because of his "erratic and unpredictable behaviour".

The force said the case would be used in future officer safety training.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct said the police officers' actions were "proportionate and reasonable in the circumstances".

Polaris Medical has been contacted for comment.

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