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UK: Stoke Newington death

01 January 1995

A 34-year Nigerian man was allegedly beaten to death by police officers shortly before Christmas. Two officers from Stoke Newington police station have been suspended and an inquiry has been launched.

Oluwashji (Shiji) Lapite was detained by up to eight officers, including two in plain clothes, on 16 December after he was seen "acting suspiciously" He was taken to the police station and within half an hour he was dead. Relatives, who were not informed of the death for 48 hours, saw his body and reported that his face was covered in bruises, his mouth split open and his skull was beaten to pulp. They claim that he was beaten to death by the police.

Two post mortems have proved inconclusive, although it is understood that a third will indicate that Mr Lapite received blows to his head and died from strangulation.

It is not the first time that Stoke Newington police station has been involved in the suspicious death of a black person. During the 1970s at least two black people died in the station. In January 1983 Colin Roach was found shot dead in the foyer of the station. His death was never been satisfactorily explained and police harassment of the Roach Family Support Campaign, which was campaigning for an independent inquiry into Colin's death, created resentment, particularly in the black community.

More recently the police station has been the focus of an inquiry into racism and corruption, involving drug dealing and violence.

Following the killing two hundred people demonstrated outside Stoke Newington police station. They are demanding an independent inquiry into Mr Lapite's death.

The Shiji Lapite Memorial Committee can be contacted on (0181) 555 8151.