There is to be a high-profile, formal inquest into how a man, while in custody, was able to walk into a Croydon police station when armed with a pistol and then, despite being in handcuffs, fire off four bullets, murdering a senior officer.
Inquest: how a man when under arrest was able to bring a weapon into the Windmill Lane custody centre is to be the subject of a coroner’s court hearing
But senior coroner Sarah Ormond-Walshe has announced that she wants to consider “outstanding matters” that were not covered at the criminal trial, including the actions of officers that night and any “missed opportunities” to prevent Sgt Ratana’s death in the Met’s custody centre on Windmill Road.
Ormond-Walshe is the coroner who presided over the inquest into the Croydon tram crash deaths.
In September 2020, Ratana, 54, was shot in the chest and leg at Croydon custody centre. Sgt Ratana died of his injuries in hospital.
His inquest is scheduled to take three weeks and is due to start at the end of October.
The coroner has not yet decided whether she will sit alone or with a jury.
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The seeming lack of curiosity from mainstream media over this incident is nothing short of incredible. Much focus, rightly, on the tragedy of the police officer’s death, almost none on how the heck it could happen, while restrained, in a police station, having been searched. I hope we find out.
We have a pretty good idea that there was not a search.
But there is a lot more issues around the incident and the trial only focused on the crime itself and those events.
The incident and death could have and should have been preventable.
I think serving officers and the family of Sgt Ratana deserve to know all the facts of the matter.
It is important that there are processes in place that protect officers and staff appropriately whilst at work in what is daily a difficult and risky public role.
Just the same as there should be processes in place that protect people and ensure there safety whilst at police sations and holding centres awaiting trial.
Hopefully the Inquest will show the flaws and ten they can be remedied so that this never happens again.