source: ITV News
published: 20 June 2019
An inquest jury has concluded that police restraint of a man from Coventry who died days after being arrested contributed to his death.
Darren Cumberbatch died in hospital nine days after being restrained by police in Nuneaton in July 2017.
The 32-year-old had been tasered and repeatedly punched by police at the probation hostel where he was staying before being taken to the George Eliot Hospital in a critically-ill state.
An inquest into his death was told he had been behaving oddly at the McIntyre House probation hostel on July 10, and staff were concerned he may have taken drugs or was suffering a mental disorder.
Police were called and the officers who arrived then called for back up and a taser unit. Officers went into a toilet cubicle to confront Mr Cumberbatch who has been waving a towel rail which had been ripped off a wall.
One of the officers, PC Steven Jones, told the inquest he saw the rail on the floor and fired his taser twice at Mr Cumberbatch and hit him once with his baton.
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