Sheku judge accused of 'torpedoing' his own independence amid private meetings with the victim's family
An inquiry judge has 'torpedoed' his own independence with the 'spectacularly ill-advised' decision to meet with the family of a man who died in police custody, it has been claimed.
The Sheku Bayoh Inquiry has been plunged into crisis amid an extraordinary bias row involving chairman Lord Bracadale, who held five private meetings with the family of the 31-year-old after he died being restrained by officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife, nearly a decade ago.
The Scottish Police Federation and the officers at the centre of the probe have now demanded Lord Bracadale step down as inquiry chairman.
But the retired High Court judge, who chaired a hearing into his own conduct, claimed that Mr Bayoh's family would have 'walked out' had he not met them.
The landmark statutory inquiry - which began in November 2020 and is nearing its closing stages - aims to find out whether racism played a part in the death of the father-of-two in 2015.
But the future of the chairman is now in doubt with a special two-day hearing which is said to cost around £2million being held in Edinburgh.
Roddy Dunlop KC, representing the Scottish Police Federation, told the hearing Lord Bracadale had to go and the meetings he held were 'in almost their entirety completely inappropriate'.
The KC added: 'They were doubtless well-meaning, they were doubtless arranged out of the best of intentions, but and with the greatest of respect, they were spectacularly ill-advised and they have torpedoed the independence of the chair.'
Lord Bracadale told the inquiry, in a written statement, that the meetings were needed.
He said: 'Given the fragility of the confidence of the families in the Inquiry at various stages, I consider that meeting them on an annual basis did contribute to obtaining and retaining their confidence in the Inquiry and securing their evidence.
'I consider that, if I had not had meetings with them, there is a high probability that they would have stopped participating and would have walked out of the Inquiry.'
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