Ombudsman Probes PSNI Station Death

As reported briefly on www.4ni.co.uk yesterday, investigators from the Police Ombudsman's office were last night probing the circumstances surrounding the discovery of a man's body in a Co. Londonderry police station.

It is understood he may have been in the toilet cubicle, which is situated in the public enquiry office of Coleraine PSNI station, for up to two hours before his body was discovered at around 2pm.

The dead man was in fact not in police custody at the time of his death and it is not yet known why he had attended the police station.

The body was discovered by a shocked member of the public in a disabled toilet at Coleraine police station yesterday afternoon. Reports suggest the deceased may have taken his own life.

The police and an ambulance crew attempted to resuscitate him after the gruesome discovery, but he failed to regain consciousness.

A spokesman for the Police Ombudsman said: "We have launched an investigation after a man in his early to mid 40s died after being taken into hospital from Coleraine Police Station. It is very early stages in our investigation."

He added: "Cases such as these are automatically referred to us by the police."

However, questions were being raised last night over how the man's body lay undetected by officers for that length of time.

The man would have had to pass the security officer to enter the station — which has 24- hour CCTV surveillance — and then pass police officers at the enquiry desk before entering the male toilets.

(BMcC/KMcA)