SUICIDE IN CUSTODY

Abstract

Remanded in custody on charges of fraud and failure to answer to bail, Martin Lynch, 29 years old, was placed in a very bare cell at Kentish Town Police Station just before one o'clock on 23 March 1990. The doctor called by the police, who knew that he was a suicide risk and had consequently removed his belt, thought him quite sane. At 1.57 p.m. the police checked his well-being, but on the next visit only eight minutes later he was found irremediably unconscious: he had hanged himself by threading his shirt through the hatch in the door and the much smaller spy-hole above it. This was possible only because the glass lens was missing from the spy-hole and the flap of the hatch had been left open, contrary to standing orders.