A Black teenager is suing the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, for race discrimination and false imprisonment after officers arrested him on suspicion of attempted murder when he arrived home to find his mother had tried to take her own life.
Daryl McLune, then 16, was handcuffed in the street outside his family’s flat in Wandsworth, south London, in July 2021 and held in custody for nearly 24 hours. He was not told during that time whether his mother, Annette McLune, was alive or dead. The teenager, now 20, is bringing a claim for false imprisonment, assault, race discrimination and breaches of his human rights before a jury at Central London County Court.
The arrest and the lawsuit
Opening the case, Daryl’s barrister, Frederick Powell, told the jury that police were called to the family’s home at Bembridge House on Iron Mill Road by Daryl’s father, Travayne McLune, after he discovered blood and his wife missing. Officers arrived to find Annette had suffered serious injuries, including a brain injury that ultimately kept her in hospital for a year. Paramedics worked to save her life while police initially questioned the father. Daryl had been at his grandmother’s house and cycled home to find the scene.
“A short time later, he was slapped in cuffs in the street, with officers telling him that he was under arrest on suspicion of the attempted murder of his mum,” Mr Powell said. Daryl was taken to Wandsworth Police Station and held overnight. He was released the following day, and less than a week later police informed him that no further action would be taken after a suicide note was discovered in the flat. The note read: “I am so tired fighting this Covid-19, I have nothing left in me to fight.”
Mr Powell argued that the arrest amounted to the “premature criminalisation of a child in crisis” and that officers were too quick to treat Daryl as a suspect rather than a shocked, grieving child.
Allegations of racial bias
Central to Daryl’s case is the claim that officers’ perception of him as a Black teenager drove their decision to arrest him. “The issue is whether in the midst of that uncertainty, the police acted lawfully in moving from investigating a grave incident to arresting Daryl, a Black boy who had just arrived at the scene in distress, on suspicion of attempting to murder his own mother,” Mr Powell told the jury.
He said Daryl did not have to prove that any officer used racist language or was consciously racist. “Discrimination can be unconscious. It can appear in people’s assumptions, in their speed of judgment as to how behaviour is interpreted.” The barrister argued that instead of being treated as a “child in crisis”, Daryl was seen as “a risk, as somebody who had to be controlled”. He added: “Our case is that when you hear the evidence the picture will be clear. We say this was not a case of careful and fair policing of a suspect – it was premature criminalisation of a child in crisis.”
Daryl, who had never been in trouble with the police before, described the shock of the arrest in his evidence. “I couldn’t believe it. I was crying and laughing at the same time. I explained to them multiple times that I wasn’t there. I was confused why I was being arrested for that,” he told the jury. “It was really embarrassing, everyone on my road seeing me in handcuffs.” Inside the police van and the holding cell, he said: “I just felt alone. I didn’t have anybody with me. Nobody to stand in my corner. I was just left alone.” He repeatedly asked about his mother’s condition but was told that as a suspect he would not be given information. “I didn’t know if my mum was alive or dead,” he said.
The impact on a ‘diligent student’
The trauma of the arrest had a profound effect on Daryl’s life, the court heard. His uncle, Kevin Ramdeo, who is Annette’s brother, told the jury that before the incident Daryl was a diligent student with “great grades” and a “bright and cheerful” demeanour. “Since the event… unrecognisable. He has been completely destroyed by this,” Mr Ramdeo said. “He is angry, really resentful. His grades were impacted. His attendance at school was impacted. He couldn’t find it in himself to go to school. It damaged every aspect of him. He would end up lashing out as a result.”
Mr Powell told the jury that the arrest and detention took a “profound psychological toll” on Daryl, damaging his educational and employment prospects and “changing his life trajectory”. Daryl himself said: “I couldn’t believe it. I was overwhelmed with emotion, I couldn’t understand. Nothing they were saying to me was making sense.”
The court also heard details of Annette McLune’s condition. She survived the suicide attempt but suffered “catastrophic” injuries. She had been in a “dark place” after struggling with a Covid infection, and her brother said doctors told the family that psychosis was one of the symptoms of Covid and she may have been suffering from it. She spent a year in hospital, relearning to walk and speak.
The Metropolitan Police’s defence
Sir Mark Rowley is fighting the claim. For the Met, barrister Russell Fortt argued that officers were doing their best in a “serious and critical incident”. He said blood at the flat led officers to believe the situation was “suspicious” and that something untoward may have happened. Crucially, police were not aware of the suicide note at the time of the arrest.
Mr Fortt put it to Daryl in the witness box that he had appeared in an “angry and hostile” mood and had behaved “aggressively” towards his father, pushing him, before leaving the scene. Daryl accepted he was “disappointed” in his father, but denied acting aggressively. Officers also noted that Daryl left the scene and later returned; police suggested he “ran off”, while Daryl said he went to phone his brother in Jamaica.
“The officers faced a challenging and very serious situation,” Mr Fortt said. “They don’t know where you have been. They couldn’t know whether you had been present in the flat at the time. The officers couldn’t have known what had happened to your mother inside the flat.” He described the suggestion that the arrest was driven by race as an “inference” and said there was no evidence of any officer using racist language or actions.
Inspector Bryan Croucher, who was involved in the arrest, explained the decision in his evidence. “I could only go on what I could see and what I could gather from the scene and from speaking to witnesses,” he told the jury. “Although we talk about a suicide note, that wasn’t brought to my attention. If it had been, my life would have been so much easier and we wouldn’t be in this court today.”
The trial before Judge Andrew Holmes and a jury of eight continues.
