Scottish police officers are cleared of wrongdoing after giving homeless man VODKA before he died of drink and drugs in the back of their van
- Police were called to disturbance at Stuart Clunie’s flat involving his partner
- He threatened to ‘kick-off’ unless officers gave him vodka shot – which they did
- Was driven to police station in Edinburgh where he was found unresponsive
- Inquiry ruled 2018 death was ‘intoxication and alcohol related liver disease’
Stuart Clunie, 34, threatened to ‘kick-off’ unless officers gave him vodka after they served him with a notice of prosecution while attending a call out to his Edinburgh flat
Two police officers who gave a man vodka before he died in the back of a police van have been cleared of any wrongdoing by a sheriff.
Stuart Clunie, 34, was given a notice of prosecution by PCs Thomas Croall and Ross Norsworthy after they had been called out to an incident in his flat involving his partner Nicola McElhone.
But Clunie, who was known to be violent, threatened to ‘kick-off’ unless officers gave him vodka, which they did in a bid to defuse the situation.
He was given a 25ml measure and then taken out to the police van.
Clunie, of Edinburgh, who had severe drink and drug problems, lay down on the van floor and was slurring his words.
When they arrived at St Leonard’s police station in the capital, he was found unresponsive and paramedics were called but Clunie could not be saved.
A fatal accident inquiry held at Edinburgh Sheriff Court ruled the cause of his death in June 2018 to be drug and alcohol intoxication and an alcohol related liver disease.
Sheriff Robert Fife said the decision to give him vodka to de-escalate a potentially volatile situation was not ‘inappropriate’ and said there were no defects in working practices.
He also ruled there had been no accident leading to Clunie’s death and no precautions could ‘reasonably’ have been made to prevent his passing.
But when he arrived at St Leonard’s police station in central Edinburgh he was found unresponsive and later died
A doctor told the FAI that in the two months leading up to his death, Clunie was ‘very dependent’ on alcohol and was drinking excessively.
It was also revealed he was more than seven times the Scottish blood alcohol drink-drive limit when he died.
He had a reading of 352mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in his system while the legal limit is 50mg per 100ml.
Clunie had been attacked with a sword and an axe two weeks earlier.
His family insisted he should have been taken to hospital rather than a police station as the facial wounds he suffered in the axe attack had become infected.
But in a written ruling, Sheriff Fife said: ‘Essentially, the police officers made a risk assessment at the time, at Mr Clunie’s demands for vodka.
‘They were considering the safest approach to remove Mr Clunie to a police van and detain him at St Leonards Police Station.
‘Generally, it would not be appropriate for the police to give an arrested person any alcohol. In the unusual circumstances of the present case, giving Mr Clunie a small quantity of vodka, around 25mL, to de-escalate the probability of Mr Clunie being violent towards the officers and Miss McElhone was not inappropriate.
‘As stated by the forensic pathologist in the post-mortem report, the central factor in Stuart Clunie’s death was acute alcohol intoxication, but the other drugs detected may have further compromised his breathing and increased the risk of a sudden heart attack, and his sudden death.’