Man choked to death after being tackled by armed police
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Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.
Today we report on the death of Ronald Robinson in 2021 - a father-of-five who died while handcuffed. Fresh details have emerged thanks to documents seen by The Blackpool Lead but the verdict remains that his death was not the fault of emergency services.
You’ll have noticed that taxi drivers often get their permission to trade from Wolverhampton Council wherever they operate and there is a new campaign, backed by Chris Webb, to change the law and allow local councils greater powers to approve or deny that permission for people in their area.
And lastly we have an influx of money coming into Blackpool to be spent on improvements to bus services.
Police thought he was overdosing - but handcuffed man was actually choking to death
By Michael Holmes
Armed police officers mistakenly believed a man they had tackled in Blackpool for driving a stolen car was overdosing - when he was actually choking to death.
A paramedic then failed to tell his colleague that 57-year-old Ronald Robinson had been seen swallowing a bag of drugs, with nobody noticing the blockage in his throat until the former tram driver was in the back of an ambulance lifeless almost half an hour later.
Despite the failings, the town’s assistant coroner Andrew Cousins concluded Robinson, who lived on the Prom, died from misadventure after being told his chances of survival were always slim and the emergency service blunders did not contribute to his death.
The father-of-five’s mother Veronica Robinson has appealed against Cousins’ finding - unsuccessfully - with the fresh details around the 2021 death emerging in High Court papers.
Outlining the final moments of Ronald Robinson’s life, the court was told he was driving in Knowle Avenue in North Shore at about 5.35pm on March 11 when he was stopped by PCs Reeve and Hardacre. Their first names were not given.
Robinson got out of the car - which, it has been reported previously, was a hire vehicle - and “while being subdued” was seen putting an “object” in his mouth, the court was told.
Robinson, Reeve and Hardacre “went to the ground”, with the officers trying to get the motorist to “spit out the object”, which, it later emerged, was a seven-centimetre plastic money bag containing eight wraps of heroin and five of crack cocaine.
They handcuffed Robinson on the ground with his hands behind his back.
Judge Mr Justice Kerr wrote: “The two officers believed he had swallowed drugs. When Mr Robinson ceased to resist and became lethargic, they suspected the drugs swallowed had taken effect.
“PC Reeve tried to rouse him with conversation and, as he put it, ‘a few gentle slaps to the back side of his head’. There was no reaction. Pc Reeve told Mr Robinson to ‘spit it out’.
“Both (officers) told the coroner they did not suspect an obstructed airway. They said they did not see signs of gagging. They called an ambulance, suspecting a drug overdose.”
At 5.39pm, Reeve “guided” Robinson’s head to the ground, put him in the recovery position and removed the handcuffs.
No pulse was felt and emergency first aid, including CPR, was started.
An ambulance was sent to the street at 5.47pm and, while it was on its way, the police officers told its crew that Robinson’s heart had stopped.
The ambulance arrived six minutes later.
One of the officers told paramedic Craig Eaton that Robinson had “swallowed something” but Eaton did not tell his colleague, the court was told.
“He thought there was no obstruction because he thought a check on the airway had been done,” Mr Justice Kerr said.
One of the officers, though it is unclear if it was Reeve or Hardacre, was heard on video telling Eaton: “So basically, mate, his car’s pinged up as stolen, we’ve gone to stop him and he’s messing with something.
“So as we’ve got there and gone to grip him, he’s fucking swallowed something. So as we’ve tried to prevent him from doing that, I don’t know whether what he’s taken has blocked something or whatever, but he’s gone into an unresponsiveness. So we’ve took (the) cuffs off, monitored him and he’s fucking gone downhill. We’ve got (the) defib on, oxygen on, done compressions since but unresponsive at the moment, mate.”
Robinson was lifted on to a trolley and Eaton continued administering CPR.
It was only when Robinson was in the ambulance at 6.02pm - around 30 minutes after he swallowed the bag - that the other paramedic, Gemma Royle, noticed the blockage in his throat, the court was told.
The package was then removed using a laryngoscope and forceps but subsequent life-saving efforts were fruitless. Robinson, who had spent time in rehab for help with a drug problem, was declared dead at Blackpool Victoria Hospital at 6.36pm.
An inquest to determine the circumstances of Robinson’s death, held in Blackpool in June 2022 in front of a jury, which was not allowed to return a conclusion of unlawful killing by way of gross negligence manslaughter, heard evidence from a number of experts.
Matthew Dunn, a consultant paramedic with the North West Ambulance Service (Nwas), said “there was a delay in starting CPR” and criticised “a failure of information-sharing by the paramedics”. But he said “the prognosis for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is unfortunately very poor”.
Dr Mark Forrest, medical director of the Anaesthesia, Trauma and Critical Care group that provides professional training and clinical governance to Lancashire Police, and medical director of the Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, said there was a “missed opportunity to administer blows to the back” at the roadside.
He told the inquest, however, that the police officers “faced a very challenging situation”, Mr Justice Kerr said, with the package blocking Robinson’s airway needing a specialist tool to remove it.
The judge added: “Dr Forrest, too, thought CPR could have been started earlier but the delay was understandable because of the limited expertise of a police officer; and, he said, the delay did not affect the outcome.
“The enhanced training of police officers does not include removal of large foreign objects with airway instruments, Dr Forrest noted; and specifically does not cover large drug packages obstructing or bursting in a person’s upper airway.”
Robinson’s family said the coroner ruling over the inquest, Cousins, inadequately summed up the events of the day and should have written a so-called prevention of future deaths report, which are used to flag the risk of further, similar deaths unless action is taken.
They also claimed Cousins was wrong to decide an inquest governed by article two of the European Convention on Human Rights - the right to life - was not needed.
After hearing submissions in the High Court by Lancashire Police’s then-chief constable, the recently retired Chris Rowley, Mr Justice Kerr ruled against Robinson’s loved ones, saying in his judgement: “Any fresh inquest would be likely to lead to those findings being the subject of the same evidence called again and the findings being repeated.
“Any narrative verdict would be likely to state those findings or the gist.
“Thus, a fresh inquest would elicit no new material facts.
“It would merely give a fresh jury the opportunity to agree or disagree with the last one, on the same facts.
“That would not be justified.
“I might well, therefore, have declined to direct a fresh inquest even if I had found the inquest was defective.”
Robinson’s family previously described a number of injuries on his body.
His sister Mandy Robinson said: “It does not add up, none of it, how he died and how he got those injuries from getting out of the car.
“My brother should still be here.”
And family representative Jade Brown said the family was “particularly concerned about the restraint used by the officers during the road traffic stop and the medical care that was rendered - or lack thereof.”
But former police officer Liam Fitzpatrick told the inquest that Pcs Reeve and Hardacre “deployed a level of force to a subject that was proportionate, reasonable and the minimum amount of force necessary” to arrest somebody driving a suspected stolen car.
He said Robinson “made the conscious decision to actively place an item within his mouth with the clear intention of avoiding any consequences for being in possession of controlled drugs”.
Fitzpatrick continued: “This behaviour is common within individuals who respond ‘emotionally’ to a set of circumstances and don’t ‘rationally’ assess the potential risk of direct harm to themselves, family or wider society.”
The injuries to Robinson, Fitzpatrick said, were “consistent with being involved in a physical confrontation during an arrest/detention and the application of force and resistance thereof”.
Reeve and Hardacre were carrying Glock handguns that were within Robinson’s reach and were too close to shock him into submission with a Taser, the ex-officer said.
But Robinson family counsel Satpal Roth-Sharma, who wanted Cousins to allow the jury to return a conclusion of gross negligence manslaughter or neglect, said the officers should have handcuffed or secured the hands of Robinson before he had time to swallow the drugs.
And they should have considered the risk of flooring Robinson while he had something in his mouth, she argued.
“Medical attention should have been sought urgently and was not. Unnecessary and excessive force was used, Ms Rath-Sharma contended,” Mr Justice Kerr said in his judgement.
He added: “The coroner then ruled that he would not leave a verdict of neglect to the jury, as there was no gross failure to take action in response to a need for assistance that was or should have been known to the officers; nor any clear and direct causal connection between such a failure and the death of Mr Robinson.
“The gaps in administering CPR at the roadside were not a gross failure. The package could only be removed by the paramedics as they had the necessary equipment.”
After Robinson’s death, investigators from the Independent Office for Police Conduct launched a probe, collecting witness statements and viewing dashcam footage from the police car involved.
Regional director Catherine Bates said: “This was a tragic incident in which a man lost his life and our thoughts remain with his family, friends and all those affected.
“It is our role to investigate all the circumstances surrounding the death of someone who dies following or during contact with the police and in this case we found officers responded swiftly to a distressing situation and made significant efforts to save Mr Robinson once it became clear he was unwell.
“We found the officers’ actions and decisions were in line with their training, policies and procedures.
“Evidence gathered during our investigation was shared with the coroner to help inform the inquest into Mr Robinson’s death, and hopefully helped to answer any outstanding questions his family may have had.”
The Blackpool Lead asked Lancashire Police several questions, including why the handcuffs were removed only after Robinson was unresponsive and if that decision was in line with current policy for detainees showing signs of medical distress.
It also asked the constabulary if, given the failure to identify a blocked airway at the scene, officers are now trained to better distinguish between overdose symptoms and choking symptoms.
A spokesperson said: “Organisational learning was identified by the IOPC following their investigation that Lancashire Constabulary should consider including scenario-based training, specific to drug package obstruction, as part of their basic life-support training.
“Management of choking first aid training was updated in late 2021 to encompass scenario-based learning in line with the IOPC recommendation.”
They added: “When Mr Robinson became unresponsive, the officers immediately requested an ambulance, as evidenced by the radio transmissions and body-worn video footage.
“His handcuffs were removed and he was laid down. Two officers provided medical assistance to Mr Robinson, including chest compressions, the use of a defibrillator and an oxygen mask.
“The officers were in possession of advanced medical equipment, which they used as soon as needed. Additional patrols were deployed to the scene to offer assistance, with a third officer taking over chest compressions on arrival.”
The force said the officers involved were given mental health support “following what was clearly a traumatic experience”.
Nwas was asked about procedures in place to ensure critical information from police officers is passed to all attending paramedics.
It was also asked how the service responded to consultant paramedic Dunn’s criticism around the delayed CPR and communication breakdown.
And it was asked what, if any, changes were made following a review into the paramedic Eaton’s actions.
A spokesperson said: “We continue to offer our condolences to Mr Robinson’s family and support the findings of the original inquest.”
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