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| Leslie Thomas: a voice for the dead | Leslie Thomas: a voice for the dead |
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| Leslie Thomas has worked on a prodigious number of high-profile cases of deaths in custody during his 25-year career as a human rights barrister. But there is one that affected him more than most. "Christopher Alder was the black paratrooper who died on camera, captured on CCTV, in [a] Hull police station. I think it was the first time I actually shed tears, when I saw the inhumanity of man towards man," he recalls. | Leslie Thomas has worked on a prodigious number of high-profile cases of deaths in custody during his 25-year career as a human rights barrister. But there is one that affected him more than most. "Christopher Alder was the black paratrooper who died on camera, captured on CCTV, in [a] Hull police station. I think it was the first time I actually shed tears, when I saw the inhumanity of man towards man," he recalls. |
| "You see as clear as day Christopher on the police station floor grunting and groaning and struggling for breath. He [was] exposed from the waist down, with police officers literally stepping over him. You actually hear his last breath before the police officers bother to look at him. That's when they panic. That was a turning point for me. I had not seen anything as shocking as that at that time." | "You see as clear as day Christopher on the police station floor grunting and groaning and struggling for breath. He [was] exposed from the waist down, with police officers literally stepping over him. You actually hear his last breath before the police officers bother to look at him. That's when they panic. That was a turning point for me. I had not seen anything as shocking as that at that time." |
| In August 2000, Alder's death was declared unlawful by the coroner's court. Thomas did not think he would ever again witness such blatant police brutality, but last year he represented the family of Sean Rigg who had a cardiac arrest and died in Brixton police station in August 2008 after being pinned down and restrained. An independent inquiry, led by criminologist Silvia Casale, last week castigated an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation into how Rigg was treated by police. | In August 2000, Alder's death was declared unlawful by the coroner's court. Thomas did not think he would ever again witness such blatant police brutality, but last year he represented the family of Sean Rigg who had a cardiac arrest and died in Brixton police station in August 2008 after being pinned down and restrained. An independent inquiry, led by criminologist Silvia Casale, last week castigated an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation into how Rigg was treated by police. |
| Failed investigations | Failed investigations |
| "It is a damning indictment of the way the police watchdog has failed in its investigation of the deaths in police custody," Thomas says. "[It] has shown just how poor too many IPCC investigations have been," and, he adds, why reform is necessary. | "It is a damning indictment of the way the police watchdog has failed in its investigation of the deaths in police custody," Thomas says. "[It] has shown just how poor too many IPCC investigations have been," and, he adds, why reform is necessary. |
| Rigg had a diagnosis of schizophrenia. An independent commission on mental health and policing, chaired by Lord Victor Abedowle earlier this month, documented a litany of failures in policing. | Rigg had a diagnosis of schizophrenia. An independent commission on mental health and policing, chaired by Lord Victor Abedowle earlier this month, documented a litany of failures in policing. |
| The report, says Thomas, "made it plain that the police most urgently need to change their practices to significantly reduce the risks of killing or seriously injuring mentally ill people when detaining them". | The report, says Thomas, "made it plain that the police most urgently need to change their practices to significantly reduce the risks of killing or seriously injuring mentally ill people when detaining them". |
| Thomas, 47, won legal aid barrister of the year in 2012. The judges concluded he had "done more for the families of those who die in custody or at the hands of the police than any other single lawyer". This year, he has yet more high-profile cases. At inquests he is representing the families of Mark Duggan, whose death after being shot by police in Tottenham, north London, sparked the 2011 riots, and the reggae star Smiley Culture, who police claim fatally stabbed himself during a drugs raid on his Surrey home in March 2011. | |
| It is clear Thomas has chosen to put deaths in custody at the centre of his work. His legal practice spans a range of human rights areas including wrongful arrest, harassment and malicious prosecutions, but it is for his advocacy in inquests that he is best known. | It is clear Thomas has chosen to put deaths in custody at the centre of his work. His legal practice spans a range of human rights areas including wrongful arrest, harassment and malicious prosecutions, but it is for his advocacy in inquests that he is best known. |
| While he has had numerous legal triumphs over the years, he seems more interested in talking about the repeated injustices experienced by the defendants and families he represents – and the wider lessons to be learned from their cases. Whether a suspicious death occurs "in a police station, a prison, a hospital or on the street", he says, it is vital that people get justice. He stresses that while there have been some improvements over the years, including access to legal aid for families at inquests, the coroners' system often feels weighted in favour of the state. | While he has had numerous legal triumphs over the years, he seems more interested in talking about the repeated injustices experienced by the defendants and families he represents – and the wider lessons to be learned from their cases. Whether a suspicious death occurs "in a police station, a prison, a hospital or on the street", he says, it is vital that people get justice. He stresses that while there have been some improvements over the years, including access to legal aid for families at inquests, the coroners' system often feels weighted in favour of the state. |
| "It's becoming cliched – but you are the voice for the dead," he says of how he views his role. "Where somebody dies in the hands of the state, the only [people] likely to probe and get to the bottom are the family and those who represent the family." | "It's becoming cliched – but you are the voice for the dead," he says of how he views his role. "Where somebody dies in the hands of the state, the only [people] likely to probe and get to the bottom are the family and those who represent the family." |
| Building up a body of expertise – particularly on positional asphyxia, which caused Alder's death – has ensured he is equipped to take on some of the most controversial cases, he suggests. | Building up a body of expertise – particularly on positional asphyxia, which caused Alder's death – has ensured he is equipped to take on some of the most controversial cases, he suggests. |
| As a black man, Thomas says he is cognisant of the fact that many deaths in custody are men of African Caribbean descent, but he stresses that his concerns are for anyone "who has no voice". | As a black man, Thomas says he is cognisant of the fact that many deaths in custody are men of African Caribbean descent, but he stresses that his concerns are for anyone "who has no voice". |
| Thomas's route to the bar was far from conventional. The reason that he chose to focus on human rights is perhaps a sense of social justice cultivated in boyhood. Brought up in a "humble" household on a council estate in south London and educated at a local comprehensive, he recalls "a burning desire" to help people who were "different" or marginalised. At 13, inexplicably, he says, he set his heart on becoming a lawyer. He says he was politicised "very, very early" due in part to exposure to racism when growing up. "It was a pretty scary time for a young black kid growing up in inner London in those days," he says. "You couldn't walk along the street without being hassled by the police." | Thomas's route to the bar was far from conventional. The reason that he chose to focus on human rights is perhaps a sense of social justice cultivated in boyhood. Brought up in a "humble" household on a council estate in south London and educated at a local comprehensive, he recalls "a burning desire" to help people who were "different" or marginalised. At 13, inexplicably, he says, he set his heart on becoming a lawyer. He says he was politicised "very, very early" due in part to exposure to racism when growing up. "It was a pretty scary time for a young black kid growing up in inner London in those days," he says. "You couldn't walk along the street without being hassled by the police." |
| After graduating from university, Thomas practised commercial law for a year, where he says he received "great training". But he much preferred the pro bono work he did in the evenings for local law centres. I was helping people at the centres who were "completely without a voice, who were being walked all over and nobody cared," he recalls. A chance meeting with the barrister Lord Anthony Gifford, who had been working on watershed miscarriage-of-justice cases, including the Guildford Four, led to him working for a while at Gifford's chambers where he set about "doing anything civil liberties-based". He has been with Garden Court Chambers in London since 1990. | After graduating from university, Thomas practised commercial law for a year, where he says he received "great training". But he much preferred the pro bono work he did in the evenings for local law centres. I was helping people at the centres who were "completely without a voice, who were being walked all over and nobody cared," he recalls. A chance meeting with the barrister Lord Anthony Gifford, who had been working on watershed miscarriage-of-justice cases, including the Guildford Four, led to him working for a while at Gifford's chambers where he set about "doing anything civil liberties-based". He has been with Garden Court Chambers in London since 1990. |
| Along the way, Thomas says he encountered challenges most colleagues couldn't conceive of. "There were times when I experienced quite open hostility and bigotry and racism within the court system. Whenever I went to court in those early days I would always be anybody other than the barrister," he says. And he remembers listening to colleagues talking about people who did legal aid work with disdain as if they were representing the worst of the worst. "It got to the stage where I was thinking, 'Well the people you are talking about are people who come from the same background, class, race as I do. So if you are talking about them like that what do you think about me?'" | Along the way, Thomas says he encountered challenges most colleagues couldn't conceive of. "There were times when I experienced quite open hostility and bigotry and racism within the court system. Whenever I went to court in those early days I would always be anybody other than the barrister," he says. And he remembers listening to colleagues talking about people who did legal aid work with disdain as if they were representing the worst of the worst. "It got to the stage where I was thinking, 'Well the people you are talking about are people who come from the same background, class, race as I do. So if you are talking about them like that what do you think about me?'" |
| Public awareness | Public awareness |
| Thomas wishes he could be more optimistic about deaths in custody becoming a thing of the past. He is pleased, nevertheless, that some things have altered for the better such as the public having a greater awareness that state agents don't necessarily tell the truth. "Twenty years ago, the general attitude was that the police could do no wrong," he explains. He is also thankful that police officers have "heard about the concept of positional asphyxia", but says he despairs of the fact that deaths in custody are still occurring regardless. "Sean Rigg was still left in the 'prone' position despite the fact that [the] officers said they knew and understood the concept," Thomas points out. | Thomas wishes he could be more optimistic about deaths in custody becoming a thing of the past. He is pleased, nevertheless, that some things have altered for the better such as the public having a greater awareness that state agents don't necessarily tell the truth. "Twenty years ago, the general attitude was that the police could do no wrong," he explains. He is also thankful that police officers have "heard about the concept of positional asphyxia", but says he despairs of the fact that deaths in custody are still occurring regardless. "Sean Rigg was still left in the 'prone' position despite the fact that [the] officers said they knew and understood the concept," Thomas points out. |
| He is currently awaiting the chair's report from a public inquiry into the "unlawful killing" of Azelle Rodney, a 24-year-old man from London shot six times by police at point-blank range in 2005, whose family Thomas represented at the inquiry. | He is currently awaiting the chair's report from a public inquiry into the "unlawful killing" of Azelle Rodney, a 24-year-old man from London shot six times by police at point-blank range in 2005, whose family Thomas represented at the inquiry. |
| While inquests are shielded from legal aid cuts, for now at least, he says funding cuts represent "one of the biggest threats" to access to justice that he can think of. Of his future work, he says: "Each year there are big public interest deaths in custody. I see myself right at the forefront fighting those cases." | While inquests are shielded from legal aid cuts, for now at least, he says funding cuts represent "one of the biggest threats" to access to justice that he can think of. Of his future work, he says: "Each year there are big public interest deaths in custody. I see myself right at the forefront fighting those cases." |