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Death of Christopher Alder

Christopher Alder was a trainee computer programmer and former British Army paratrooper who had served in the Falklands War and was decorated for his service with the Army in Northern Ireland. He died while in police custody at Queen's Gardens Police Station, Kingston upon Hull, in April 1998. The case became a cause célèbre for civil rights campaigners in the United Kingdom. He had earlier been the victim of an assault outside a nightclub and was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary where, possibly as a result of his head injury, staff said his behaviour was "extremely troublesome." He was escorted from the hospital by two police officers who arrested him to prevent a breach of the peace.On arrival at the police station Alder was "partially dragged and partially carried," handcuffed and unconscious, from a police van and placed on the floor of the custody suite. Officers chatted between themselves and speculated that he was faking illness. Twelve minutes later one of the officers present noticed that Alder was not making any breathing noises and although resuscitation was attempted, he was pronounced dead at the scene. A post mortem indicated that the head injury alone would not have killed him. The incident was captured on the police station's closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.A coroner's jury in 2000 returned a verdict that Alder was unlawfully killed. In 2002 five police officers were tried, charged with manslaughter and misconduct in public office, but they were cleared on the orders of the judge. In 2006 an Independent Police Complaints Commission report concluded that four of the officers present in the custody suite when Alder died were guilty of the "most serious neglect of duty". In November 2011 the government formally apologised to Alder's family in the European Court of Human Rights, admitting that it had breached its obligations in regard to preserving life and ensuring no one is subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment. They also admitted that they had failed to carry out an effective and independent inquiry into the case.