Derek Treadaway: tortured by police

DPP Asked to Rethink Police Prosecution Decision

Lord Justice Rose said that Dame Barbara Mills, the DPP, had made a "flawed" decision not to prosecute four former members of West Midlands Serious Crimes Squad who allegedly suffocated a male suspect with a plastic bag in order to gain a confession.

The man, Derek Treadaway, spent 13 years in jail after being convicted of robbery and conspiracy to rob. He was cleared upon appeal. From his trial, he maintained that his confession had been extracted through violence.

Mr Treadaway was awarded damages in a civil action for assault against the Chief Constable of the West Midlands. However, in August 1995 the DPP decided there was insufficient evidence to justify a prosecution because there was no prospect of the officers being convicted.

Similar High Court decisions against the DPP were made last week in the cases of Richard O'Brien, a 37 year-old market trader who died from asphyxia in 1994 when he was arrested and handcuffed face down, and Shiji Lapite, who arrested in 1994 outside a London nightclub and had his larynx partially crushed during a struggle.

Dame Barbara announced last Friday that she had ordered an urgent, independent inquiry into decisions not to prosecute the police officers. She made no comment on her own future.

Commenting on the Treadaway case, Lord Justice Rose said there was medical evidence to back Mr Treadaway's story. He criticised the DPP, saying that "a most careful analysis" was required in making a decision whether to prosecute. "In our judgement, it did not receive such an analysis," said Lord Justice Rose.