Olawale Adelusi

MATTER OF CONCERN - SUMMARY The absence of an effective system to ensure appropriate transmission of all information relevant to assessment of the (i) risk of self-harm or (ii) mental health, of detained persons

BASIS OF CONCERN : – Whilst in police custody Mr Adelusi had been taken to hospital where he remained under police guard. Police Officers kept a Hospital Guard Supervision Log covering a 6.5 hour period and in it recorded that Mr Adelusi had: on several occasions deliberately thrown himself from bed to floor in such a way as to cause concern for his safety; been observed crying on several occasions; been observed banging his head on the floor; spoken of a plot to kill him and of his son having been killed by police; and tried to bite the clinical drip pipe. On return to the police station, Mr Adeslusi was kept under constant supervision and a Constant Supervision Log was maintained by officers over a period of 23 hours in which they recorded that he had been observed: "pushing his thumbs down on to his neck" until he had to be told to desist; urinating in the corner of his cell; whispering to the Forensic Medical Examiner "they've killed him"; again crying and saying "you've killed him"; trying to strangle himself with a vest; kneeling with his head against the floor, crying; and accusing officers of killing his children and asking to see their bodies. Neither the logs, nor the information recorded in them, was included in Mr Adelusi's Personal Escort Record; nor was that information otherwise transmitted in writing to those responsible for his detention after removal from the police station. Whilst there was evidence of a verbal handover to Escort Personnel, at which some of this information may have been mentioned, no record was made of that conversation.