by Lynn Cox

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating why a man with serious medical conditions, thought to include diabetes, collapsed while in custody at Medway Police Station.

The commission will find out way, the 45-year-old, who had been arrested on suspicion of drink-driving, just before midnight on Saturday, August 22, collapsed the next morning at the custody desk.

After his arrest he was taken to the station in Gillingham and custody staff noted his medical conditions and that he appeared to be intoxicated.

The next morning at about 9.40am, he was at the custody desk being charged when he collapsed. He was taken to hospital and made a full recovery.

Nicholas Long, IPCC commissioner, said: “Over the last five years there has been a consistent fall in the number of deaths in police custody.

“This is because the IPCC and the police have worked together to ensure lessons are learned not just when someone has died, but also when there has been a near miss.

“As is routine in near misses Kent Police referred this matter to us for our consideration. Having evaluated all the information available at this time we consider it appropriate that an independent investigation is conducted. This will seek to ascertain the full circumstances of the care afforded to the arrested man.

“In this case it is yet to be established whether officers took his intoxication into account and regularly checked his condition, and we will be examining what consideration was given to treating his serious medical conditions.

“Our investigation will therefore focus on whether the guidelines were followed.”