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THE family of Sheku Bayoh have slammed a former lord advocate for failing to challenge unconscious bias in the investigation into his death.
Mr Bayoh died of positional asphyxiation on May 3 2015 after being bound hand and foot, with six police officers on top of him.
Allegations of racism have long dogged the case, from the initial phone call that sparked the police response to the handling of the investigation into Bayoh’s death, prompting then chief constable of Police Scotland Iain Livingstone to admit last year that his force was “institutionally racist.”
When challenged on the matter of unconscious bias, not only in the response to the incident but the subsequent investigation, former lord advocate James Wolffe, once principal legal adviser to the Scottish government, told senior counsel to the inquiry, Angela Grahame KC, it was “potentially” an issue.
He said: “It seemed to me that race should be taken into account as relevant to various stages of the investigation.”
Mr Wolffe admitted that the lack of any consideration of race as a relevant factor was a “missed opportunity,” sparking a furious response from Bayoh’s family.
Speaking on their behalf, human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar said: “On Mr Wolffe’s watch, his Crown Office is accused of cynically manipulating events, abusing the human rights of the Sheku’s family and doing everything to obstruct their search for truth.
“What exactly were the Crown Office doing for four years with all their resources?
“They repeatedly failed to investigate race, they instructed the wrong experts, treated the Bayohs with contempt, presented the wrong facts to experts and then failed to prosecute.
“The Bayoh family hold this former lord advocate ultimately responsible for the betrayal of justice and of presiding over a culture of incompetence, denial, secrecy, bias and institutional racism.”
