Roger Stephen R. J. Sylvester (17 August 1968 – 19 January 1999) was a mentally ill man who died after being detained outside his home in

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...

, London, by eight

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

officers. It was reported that his neighbours had complained to police of a disturbance after Sylvester had started banging on his own front door, naked. Police detained Sylvester under the

Mental Health Act Mental Health Act is a stock short title used for legislation relating to mental health law. List Canada * Mental Health Act (Ontario) (Ontario) India *The Mental Health Care Act, 2017 Ireland *The Mental Health Act 2001 New Zealand *The Men ...

, then took him to St Ann's Hospital, Haringey, where he fell into a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

while being restrained on the floor of a padded room by six officers while being assessed by medical staff. He died at Whittington Hospital,

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

, 8 days later without regaining consciousness. In 2003, an

inquest An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a coro ...

heard that Sylvester, who suffered from

bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

, had died of serious brain damage and cardiac arrest, caused by difficulty breathing because of the position he was held in. A jury returned a verdict of

unlawful killing In English law, unlawful killing is a verdict that can be returned by an inquest in England and Wales when someone has been killed by one or more unknown persons. The verdict means that the killing was done without lawful excuse and in breach of ...

in October 2003. The eight officers who had taken Sylvester into custody appealed to the High Court against what they called an "irrational" ruling, and the verdict was overturned in November 2004. In 1999, forensic pathologist Freddy Patel was reprimanded by the

General Medical Council The General Medical Council (GMC) is a public body that maintains the official register of medical practitioners within the United Kingdom. Its chief responsibility is to "protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public" by c ...

(GMC) for releasing medical details about Roger Sylvester to reporters outside an inquest hearing, Patel told reporters that Sylvester was a crack cocaine user, something his family denied. Patel later performed the controversial police postmortem following the

death of Ian Tomlinson Ian Tomlinson (7 February 1962 – 1 April 2009) was a newspaper vendor who collapsed and died in the City of London after being struck by a police officer during the 2009 G-20 summit protests. After an inquest jury returned a verdict of ...

in April 2009 which reportedly favoured the disproven police account. In 2012, Patel was struck off (banned from practising} by the

who found that he was not only incompetent but also dishonest.

References

External links

*Waldran, Justin
Roger Sylvester
National Civil Rights Movement *Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sylvester, Roger 1968 births 1999 deaths Deaths by person in London Deaths in police custody in the United Kingdom People with bipolar disorder 20th-century Black British people

See also

References

External links