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The sister of a man who died in police custody has described the four-year wait for the Crown Prosecution Service to decide whether any chargers would be brought against a police officer and a former healthcare professional as a “form of torture”.
William Cameron, 23, who was described by his family as a “kind, loving, and protective brother”, died in custody at Loddon Valley police station, near Reading in Berkshire, on 8 January 2020.
A police sergeant and a former healthcare professional were then placed under a criminal investigation in relation to his death.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) formally referred the case to the CPS for a charging decision in 2021. However, four years later, the family is still waiting for the CPS to announce its decision.
This prolonged delay has left the family in a state of limbo, unable to grieve or find closure, Patricia Cameron told the Guardian. Without a charging decision, the family are unable to hold an inquest into William’s death or access the underlying evidence referenced in the IOPC’s report.
“I feel really angry,” Patricia said. “I feel at times quite bereft at this. This is a form of torture to just put people in this form of uncertainty. It compounds the trauma and it freezes the grief.”
She added: “We’re stuck. We can’t move forward. We can’t process anything. We don’t know the answers to everything. We have had crying, here and there, but to be honest, I think that’s mainly out of frustration and anger for the CPS and it’s not out of grieving for our brother.
“I feel like I can’t even begin to grieve. I feel upset, of course I do, but until we know what’s what, we’re just stuck in 2020 when all of this happened. It’s just awful, absolutely awful.”
Any misconduct proceedings against officers are put on hold until criminal proceedings are concluded.
The CPS would make promises of providing answers by specific dates, but would then miss those deadlines, Patricia said. “We feel like we’re being failed. We aren’t getting the answers that we so desperately want and need. It’s like they’re dangling the answer in front of us, only to take it away again.”
Patricia said she had repeatedly met the CPS and urged it to make progress on her brother’s case, but they were still waiting for a decision.
Deborah Coles, the director of Inquest, said while the delay to William’s casewas shocking, it was by no means an isolated case. “It just illustrates the systemic delay for decision-making in these cases and it’s completely dysfunctional.”
She said the system for investigating deaths was “beset by complexity and delay” and it was the families that felt the consequences.
“For bereaved people, their lives are put on hold. They can’t begin to grieve, they can’t get on with their lives because they’re waiting to find out the truth about how somebody died,” she said. “They spend years of their lives engaged with the justice system before they get answers, before they get any semblance of accountability. And that places a really serious toll on their emotional and physical health.”
Coles warned that such delays “dilute the effectiveness of any subsequent legal process because there is then the danger that people say, ‘Oh well, such is the passage of time, I can’t recall’.”
For Patricia, she wants to fight for her brother as he once fought for her. “He was one in a million,” she said. “He was the best big brother. If I ever did anything naughty, he would take the blame. He used to call me his little miss. He was just the best.
“I don’t want to let him down … I would hate for him to think that I’m not fighting hard enough for him.”
A CPS spokesperson said their thoughts were with the family, and that the “complexities of this case meant we required additional evidence to make a charging decision, which was the subject of ongoing advice by the CPS and investigation by the IOPC between 2021 and July 2024, when the final material was provided.”
The spokesperson said the family had been “informed of developments throughout and [the CPS] have made them aware of the specific work that needs to take place.”
A spokesperson for the IOPC confirmed they promptly sent further material to the CPS when asked. “We appreciate the delay is stressful for all the parties involved but the timing of CPS decisions is beyond our control.”
A spokesperson for Thames Valley police said that while “it would be inappropriate for us to comment further whilst proceedings are active, [the force] acknowledge the family’s concerns and recognise the impact the length of this investigation will be having.”
