Coroner’s inquests called into London police custody deaths

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Inquests will be held into the deaths of three people who died in London police custody, the province announced Tuesday.

The inquests will examine the deaths of Amanda Bolt, 28, Fabian Hart, 46, and Christopher Campbell, 55, the office of the chief coroner of Ontario said.

A coroner’s inquest is a formal hearing where the facts of the death are laid out and a jury makes recommendations to prevent similar deaths. The in-depth examinations typically take place when all other investigations are completed, including Special Investigation Unit probes, criminal investigations and after appeal periods have expired.

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The dates of the inquests for the three Londoners haven’t been released.

AMANDA BOLT

Bolt was arrested Nov. 2, 2019, and taken to London police headquarters and then released. She was re-arrested later that day for breaching conditions of her release and put in a cell, where she went into medical distress the next morning, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Ontario’s police watchdog, said.

Bolt was given Naloxone – a nasal spray used to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses – before being taken to hospital where she died 10 days later, the SIU said.

In March 2021, the watchdog charged Sgt. Kevin Lui, 45 at the time, with failing to provide the necessaries of life. The Crown withdrew the charge seven months later. London police conducted an internal investigation into Bolt’s death, as is required when an officer is charged by the SIU, that also cleared Lui of any wrongdoing.

Bolt had told the officer in charge of the detention unit – Lui isn’t named in the report – that she needed medication for various conditions, including a heart condition, according to a report on internal probe presented to the city’s police board in September 2022.

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The officer denied Bolt’s request to go to hospital and instead arranged to have her medications delivered from a pharmacy the next day. The Crown said it couldn’t establish that Lui’s failure to get Bolt’s medication created a risk to her life, the report said.

FABIAN HART

Hart was arrested on Feb. 1, 2021 for allegedly failing to comply with release conditions and taken to the police station, where he told officers he wasn’t feeling well the next day and was taken to hospital after going into “medical distress,” the SIU said.

Hart’s father, Gerard, told The Free Press his son was an alcoholic and should have been closely monitored after his arrest.

The SIU determined Hart took methamphetamine minutes before he went into seizures and cleared a London police officer of any wrongdoing in his death.

CHRISTOPHER CAMPBELL

Campbell was arrested after police responded to a report of a motorist driving erratically on Oct. 11, 2018. The vehicle ended up in a ditch near Wonderland Road and Harry White Drive, the SIU said.

Campbell was arrested and became unresponsive while being driven to the police station. He was taken to hospital, where he died. An autopsy attributed the death to “multi-drug toxicity” from fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, trazodone and ethanol, and the SIU cleared a London police officer of any wrongdoing.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com

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