Legal team resigns in Sheku Bayoh death inquiry

The legal team in the Sheku Bayoh Inquiry have resigned just days after the chairperson stepped down.

Senior counsel to the Inquiry Angela Graham KC, Laura Thomson KC and Jason Beer KC have led the questioning at the hearings into the death of Mr Bayoh.

Junior counsel Rachel Barrett and Sarah Loosemore have also resigned.

Former judge Lord Bracadale confirmed he was standing down as inquiry chair on Tuesday, after refusing calls to quit by the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) two months earlier.

The inquiry team said his replacement would be decided by Scottish government ministers, with the new chair then appointing counsel.

Mr Bayoh, 31, died in police custody in May 2015 after being restrained by six officers on a street in Kirkcaldy, Fife.

The inquiry has been dealing with how police dealt with the aftermath and whether race was a factor.

The latest resignations are another blow to the inquiry, which started in November 2020.

After Lord Bracadale’s resignation earlier this week, the family said they felt “totally betrayed” by the criminal justice system.

They have threatened to withdraw from the public inquiry and have asked for a meeting with First Minister John Swinney.

The Scottish Police Federation had questioned Lord Bracadale’s impartiality over meetings with Mr Bayoh’s family. But the family insisted the “respected” former judge had done “nothing wrong”.

The inquiry has been looking into events before and after Mr Bayoh’s death.

Members of the public had called the police after he was spotted carrying a knife and behaving erratically in the streets of Kirkcaldy on 3 May 2015.

He was not carrying the knife when officers arrived at the scene but a violent confrontation followed, with up to six officers restraining him on the ground.

Mr Bayoh lost consciousness and later died in hospital.

The inquiry has so far cost £26.2m, with an additional £24.3m spent by Police Scotland, including £17.3m of legal costs.