Police assumed man was alive

POLICE officers assumed a man, who later died after collapsing in his cell, was alive because they could hear him ‘snoring’.

The inquest into Philip Orton, of Westway, Little Hulton, who died in police custody, has heard officers did not open his cell door once to check on him.

A police surgeon told custody staff the 40-year-old should have been monitored every 30 minutes at Eccles police station following his arrest in connection with reports of a stabbing in January 2003.

A jury inquest in Bolton was told that because he was drunk, the checks should have involved him being physically roused to get a response but this did not happen.

The inquest has also heard that custody records reported Mr Orton had been visited in his cell six times over a three-hour period before he was found collapsed yet images taken from a CCTV camera monitoring the cell showed the door had only been approached once - when another custody suite officer went to offer him breakfast.

Mr Orton was pronounced dead in hospital on January 4, 2003.

In interview, Sgt Rees agreed that custody record reports said Mr Orton had been roused at 8.18am, 8,52am and 9.18am but the jury was told CCTV images showed no one near his cell at those times.

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In other words the police lied to cover up their incompetance which cost a man his life.