On 28 November 2007, 17 year old Kristoffer Batt was found dead in the cells at Tayside Police Headquarters in Dundee. Three years later a Fatal Accident Inquiry has now reported its findings and they show a disgusting and corrupt lack of concern for the young man. Alarm buzzers in the cells had been switched off “some years ago” but nobody “knew exactly when, by whom or why”. The custody assistant had positioned himself out of sight of alarm lights while he surfed sports and social networking sites. Stuart Lewis ignored one light for 49 minutes and, responding after 15 minutes to a second call, he did not ask the young man as to the cause of his request for assistance. Lewis then deliberately failed to cancel the light making it impossible for further help to be summoned. Kristoffer had smuggled heroin into his cell and by dawn had fatally overdosed. Lewis has kept his job despite being shown to have falsified custody records.
In the hours immediately prior to Kristoffer dying, an FRFI supporter was violently arrested by Tayside Police in Dundee. Phone footage of the assault can be seen on YouTube.
His crime was to ask the police on what law they based their aggressive and threatening demand that he leave an area where he was peacefully and legally handing out leaflets for a forthcoming tour of speakers from socialist Cuba. Taken to the local Bell Street cells, he was charged with disorderly conduct and lashing out at the constables with arms and legs. A public campaign was launched with street meetings, petitions and leafleting to challenge the police frame up. The comrade was able to get a letter published in a widely read local daily. This took issue with Tayside Chief Constable John Vine’s feeble description of his cells as a ‘custody suite’. The letter described the actual reality of blood smeared walls, of an area that stunk like a neglected dog pound and, most significantly, challenged the lack of concern and attention from the staff there. The letter commented on the news of Kristoffer’s death and offered any assistance to any inquiry. Despite assurances from a solicitor that all those in custody around the time of the young lad’s death would be called as witnesses, the comrade was never approached by any legal authority. The police lies in his case were exposed by CCTV but no cop was ever charged with false statements and an enquiry by the Scottish Police Complaints Ombudsman cleared the police of any wrongdoing.
Three years later, as the FAI report bears out, the Chief Constable’s “custody suite” was shown to be the dirty death trap it became for Kristoffer Batt. John Vine went on to the UK Border Police Inspectorate where his experience of twisting the truth and covering up will surely prove useful.
FRFI sends its condolences to Kristoffer’s family. Justice has far from been done in this case as the system closes ranks to maintain the fiction of legality and care. FRFI is seeking to establish why an important and credible witness was excluded from the inquiry.
