What happened
Richard O’Brien was 37, a market trader, 19 stone, and father of seven. In April 1994 police were called to trouble at a hall in Walworth, south-east London. His counsel later told the High Court that the trouble had nothing to do with the O’Briens, and that some officers took offence at him leaving the hall and waiting outside for his family. He was arrested for being drunk and disorderly.
Three officers put him on the ground and held him face down. Counsel described the position as one that “can only be described as dangerous”, and said that after 15 minutes or so on the ground he died. The cause of death was postural asphyxia. His family say his pleas that he could not breathe were ignored.
The outcome
An inquest jury found in 1995 that he had been unlawfully killed. Three officers stood trial for manslaughter in 1999 and were acquitted. The family pursued a civil claim under the Fatal Accidents Act, and the High Court ruled about two years before the payout that the Metropolitan Police Commissioner was liable for the death.
According to The Guardian’s report of the hearing, Mr Justice Buckley approved £324,000 in May 2002. No apology was given.
What went wrong
This is positional asphyxia in its plainest form. A heavy, intoxicated man was held face down by three officers for about a quarter of an hour, and the position itself, not a blow and not a struggle, was what killed him. Nothing in that account requires a rare technique or a failure of nerve. It requires three people to keep doing what they were already doing.
The coroner at the inquest, Sir Montague Levine, said the case reflected “an appalling lack of instruction” among officers in restraint techniques. That is a finding about training rather than about three individuals. If nobody had taught them that a face-down hold has a time limit, they had no reason to be watching a clock.
What it teaches
Prone restraint is a time-limited intervention. Fifteen minutes face down on a heavy, intoxicated man is not a control technique being maintained; it is an asphyxiation in progress. Someone has to set the maximum time, someone has to watch the airway, and someone has to be able to say the words that end it.
The case also shows what a civil court can see that a criminal court cannot. Three officers were acquitted and the Commissioner was held liable for the same death. A trainer who tells staff that a restraint was cleared because nobody was convicted is telling them the wrong thing.
Questions for the room
- Three officers, about 15 minutes, one man face down. At what point should the position have changed, and who should have called it?
- You are the third officer, holding a leg, and the man says he cannot breathe. The other two are not reacting. What do you do?
- The coroner found an appalling lack of instruction. What does your own training record say about positional asphyxia, and would it satisfy him?
Evidence and limits
Confidence: confirmed. The Guardian’s report of the hearing and the claimant solicitors’ case list independently record the settlement figure, the May 2002 approval and the inquest verdict. The acquittals mean no officer was convicted, and the record holds no disciplinary outcome.
The family’s account of the pleas is reported as an allegation and presented here as one. The entry does not print the injury counts recorded at the inquest, because the finding is the position and the duration.
If your staff meet intoxicated or agitated people on the street, our training on vulnerable and volatile persons covers the first minute and the decision to stop.
Sources
- The Guardian, payout to family of man who died in custody
- Bhatt Murphy, notable custodial death cases
Reviewed 20 October 2026.