Tasered and batoned in a hostel toilet, dead nine days later

A 32-year-old electrician in acute behavioural disturbance was Tasered, sprayed and restrained at a probation hostel, and died of multi-organ failure nine days later.

What happened

Darren Cumberbatch, 32, an electrician, was living at McIntyre House in Nuneaton, a hostel run by the probation service. On 10 July 2017 he was behaving oddly, running around the hostel and shouting, and staff were concerned enough for his safety and others to call police in the early hours.

Officers arrived and saw his agitation. The concern was that he might have taken drugs, might have a mental health issue, or might be in acute behavioural disturbance, so more officers were called.

He got into a toilet area, where officers tried to talk him down, and got hold of a metal grab rail. In the struggle Tasers were deployed, incapacitant spray was discharged, a baton was used, and there were strikes with hand and foot. He was restrained, taken out of the hostel, put into a police van and driven to George Eliot Hospital a few minutes away.

The outcome

At the hospital he was still agitated and was taken into A&E for observations. He said he had taken cocaine, and a high temperature and heart rate showed how serious his condition was. He calmed and improved, but his blood protein levels were very high, and on 11 July he was transferred to intensive care as his kidney function did not improve. He suffered multi-organ failure and died on 19 July 2017.

The inquest concluded on 25 June 2019, recording the death as drug related with a narrative appended. The assistant coroner, Delroy Henry, described the level of restraint as “excessive” and “probably avoidable”, and the lack of planning before officers entered the toilet block as a “serious failure”.

What went wrong

The coroner’s Prevention of Future Deaths report, 2019-0289, went to the chief executive of HM Prison and Probation Service. Its concern was institutional: hostel staff had no training in acute behavioural disturbance, although they knew his history of substance misuse and watched the signs develop.

The report set out those signs, from bizarre behaviour and incoherent speech to a diminished sense of pain and sudden tranquillity after frenzied activity, and the mechanism: restraint, and struggle against restraint, increase acidosis, which can lead to muscle breakdown, rhabdomyolysis and multi-organ failure.

So the failure had two halves: staff who knew him could not name what they were seeing, and officers went into a confined space with no plan agreed at the door.

What it teaches

Restraint has a delayed mortality. Nine days later an inquest still found the restraint contributed, which makes the handover at the hospital door part of the restraint.

The people who know a resident best need the vocabulary. Hostel staff see the change first, and that is worth nothing unless they can say “this looks like acute behavioural disturbance” to a call handler at 3am and be understood.

Questions for the room

The hostel staff knew him and watched the signs develop. What should they have been able to say to the call handler?
You are the officer in the toilet block doorway. What is your plan before you go in, and who has agreed it?

Evidence and limits

Confidence: confirmed. The coroner’s Prevention of Future Deaths report of 16 July 2019 and BBC News reporting of the inquest were read and agree. The ITV News Central report failed to fetch with a read timeout and was not read.

The record dates the restraint 10 July 2017. The report and the inquest give 19 July 2017 as the date of death, used here.

Proceedings concluded on 25 June 2019. No officer is named, and none was convicted.

If your teams work across housing, probation and health, our restraint reduction training covers acute behavioural disturbance.

Sources

Reviewed 20 October 2026.