A police watchdog has reopened its investigation into the death of a man restrained by police in hospital after ruling there was evidence officers may have committed criminal offences.
Olaseni Lewis, 23, died after he was restrained by up to seven police officers at the Bethlem Royal Hospital on August 31, 2010.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) confirmed this week it was reinvestigating the death after Mr Lewis's family filed a high court action on Friday calling on judges to quash the IPCC's original decision that there was no fault in officers' actions.
The IPCC said it had found officers may have committed offences or behaved in a manner which could justify criminal proceedings.
A spokeswoman for the IPCC would not confirm if this included the suggestion Mr Lewis could have been unlawfully killed.
In its original investigation the IPCC chose to accept written accounts from the Metropolitan Police but now wants to interview officers under caution.
The death of Mr Lewis, who lived in South Norwood, took place after he voluntarily admitted himself as a patient to the mental health hospital after he felt uncharacteristically odd and agitated.
Hours later officers were called to restrain him following a disturbance.
He was restrained three times - first by hospital staff and then by 11 police officers - for 45 minutes before his collapse into a coma.
He never regained consciousness and died three days later at Croydon University Hospital Mr Lewis’ family have taken the IPCC to the High Court, at its own request, to get the original report into his death quashed.
The IPCC cannot scrap their original decision unless a court order is made. The organisation will also be paying the family’s legal costs.
In a separate matter the IPCC are taking the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to the High Court over its refusal to allow officers to be interviewed under caution as part of its investigation. It filed its papers on July 15.
The MPS is refusing to record any conduct against the officers concerned as according to the IPCC, the MPS dispute the power of the watchdog to direct them to re-refer the incident.
An MPS spokesman said they would defend the appeal robustly.
IPCC Commissioner Rachel Cerfontyne said the watchdog take the concerns raised my Mr Lewis’ family very seriously and their focus is providing them with answers to what happened to their son.
Ajibola Lewis, Olaseni’s mother, said it was good the IPCC had recognised they had made a mistake in their original investigation.
She said: "We have been fighting for a proper and thorough investigation to be done.
"The IPCC have apologised. They are trying to do the decent thing now. We just want a thorough investigation so we can move on.
"For the family to wait for so long is difficult for us, we have had no closure as things haven’t been done. Fortunately things are now being done the right way."
No date for the high court hearings have yet been set.
No inquest has yet taken place into Mr Lewis's death.
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