Report: Detainee head-butts himself to death

A DETAINEE in a cell of a police station killed himself by repeatedly butting his head on his cell door, said a report by Parliament’s Human Rights Committee. The report on the Treatment of Detainees and Conditions at Holding Cells in TT’s Police Stations was laid in the Lower House last week.

Michelle Solomon-Baksh, deputy director of the Police Complaints Authority (PCA), made this revelation to the joint select committee (JSC) at a public hearing on March 2.

Speaking on the use of CCTV cameras to monitor the safety of detainees, she said the cameras had once actually exonerated the police officers on duty from any culpability in the man’s death.

“We can clearly speak about of an incident where a detainee had serious head injuries and died subsequently. The officers were exonerated because the footage on the corridor, and we only had the benefit of the corridor, it showed that he actually head-butt, he had head-butt himself.

Solomon-Baksh said the officers were not to blame, as they had been monitoring him by the CCTV cameras when he had continued to show movement even after assaulting himself.

Saying it is recommended that at CCTV cameras have at least a partial coverage of the holding cell (with a pixelated view of the cell’s toilet), plus other areas in the police station, Solomon-Baksh said, “That footage has been of great value to the PCA.”