Police officer who Tasered 92-year-old with dementia 'could have contributed to pensioner's death,' inquest hears
Police officers who Tasered a disabled 92-year-old in a care house may have contributed to his death, an inquest has heard.
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Police were called to Park Beck Residential Care Home in East Sussex after one-legged dementia sufferer Donald Burgess flicked food at a worker on June 21, 2022.
They had been told that Mr Burgess had refused to put down a butter knife he had used to prod another pensioner.
After the officers arrived, the dementia sufferer was pepper-sprayed and Tasered - which saw him arrested and hospitalised.
Mr Burgess contracted Covid in hospital, where he died 22 days after the incident.
An inquest hearing into his death was told PC Stephen Smith, 51, and PC Comotto, 34, "shouted" at the vulnerable pensioner before "screaming" at him.
When he failed to drop the serrated knife, he was hit on the arm with a police baton by PC Smith who then sprayed almost a whole can of pepper spray into his face.
PC Comotto then fired her taser, hitting the pensioner in the chest and causing Mr Burgess to groan: "I'm dying."
Widower Mr Burgess was arrested, handcuffed and taken to a police station after the escalation.
But his condition quickly deteriorated, and he was immediately transferred to hospital.
After being treated for a Urinary Tract Infection, he was recommended for discharge from hospital.
However, Park Beck Residential Care Home in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, refused to take him back.
He was left waiting in hospital for a suitable care home place to become available and subsequently contracted Covid.
Mr Burgess suffered a cardiac arrest and died at the Conquest Hospital in Hastings in July 2022.
The pensioner had suffered from multiple health conditions, including diabetes and carotid artery disease - living at the home since 2018.
He died shortly after his 93rd birthday.
Jesse Nicholls, the lawyer for the family, said: "This is a case where an elderly and vulnerable man was subjected to considerable force by the police officers and would not have been in hospital if that force had not been used."
He added that the two officers present may have caused "physiological stress" which could have had a "causative" effect on his pasisng.
Mr Nicholls said: "A substantial amount of that time is taken up by shouting and then screaming at him as he was sitting unmoving in his wheelchair. When he attempts to speak they shout over him so he can't be heard."
Mr Nicholls said the position of Sussex Police that it was "coincidental" Mr Burgess's death occurred so close in time to the care home incident was wrong.
A post-mortem later ruled his cause of death was 'bronchial pneumonia with cardiac disease'.
East Sussex Coroner Michael Spencer has adjourned the hearing and will decide at a later date on whether to hold a full inquest.passing
The hearing has been adjourned until December 15.