PCs Neil Bowdery, left, and Maurice Leigh at Maidstone Crown Court over the death of Colin Holt. Pictures: Mike Gunnill

by Keith Hunt

Two police officers failed to take proper care of a man who died as he was detained under the Mental Health Act to return him to hospital, a court heard.

PC Maurice Leigh, 54, and 29-year-old PC Neil Bowdery are accused of misconduct in public officer over the handling of 52-year-old Colin Holt.

Prosecutor Duncan Penny stressed that the officers were not accused of being responsible for Mr Holt’s death.

But he added: “Each is accused of the offence of misconduct in a public office, because as they stood over him, having detained him following a struggle, each neglected his duty; each failed to take responsible and proper care of him and, through that neglect, though plainly not with that intention, allowed him to die in front of them without taking action to seek to prevent it.

“Both PC Leigh and PC Bowdery as constables are holders of public office and were both acting as such when detaining and restraining Mr Holt for the purpose of returning him to hospital.

“PC Leigh and PC Bowdery each owed a duty of care to Mr Holt when they detained him. The duty was to take reasonable care for his health and safety.”

Maidstone Crown Court was told that “obese” Mr Holt, who was 52, died at his Gillingham home from “positional asphyxia”, which occurs when the person’s position prevents them from breathing while being detained.

Colin Holt died at home in Harbledown Court

He had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act, but left Medway Maritime Hospital and went to back to his one-bedroom flat at Harbledown Manor, Goudhurst Road, Twydall.

Mr Penny said Mr Holt suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and mental behavioural disorder secondary to alcohol misuse.

He had not committed a criminal offence but was detained in hospital for assessment under compulsory admission powers.

Mr Penny said the Crown’s case was that each officer, without reasonable excuse, wilfully neglected to perform his duty “by behaving with reckless indifference towards Mr Holt in failing to reposition him at any time after Mr Holt had ceased to struggle and in failing to check on his welfare after he had ceased struggling”.

He added: “The Crown alleges that, in the circumstances of this case, the breach of their duty was a serious one and that, sadly, the offence of misconduct in public was committed.”

Leigh and Bowdery, both from Chatham, deny the charge.

The trial continues.