He had never been in trouble with the authorities and was well known and respected within his community. He would, (although this was on extremely rare occasions), be prone to bouts of depression; and on the night in question one of these episodes occurred. Mikey died on 7th September 2003, in police custody in Handsworth, Birmingham. He had been arrested outside his mother's house in the Lozells area of the city.

This is what happened. Officers drove a police car at

Mikey, hitting him, beat him with batons, CS gassed

him, restrained him and, knowing he was injured, and

drove him to a police station not a hospital. At the

police station the officers simply did not call for an

ambulance for over 4 minutes. Mikey was dead by the

time it arrived. On any body’s version

something went very seriously wrong.

The whole community was outraged and angry that this could happen so suddenly to a law abiding citizen. This was reflected in a packed public meeting held in September 2003, and a march to Thornhill Road police station in November 2003. Over 500 people attended the protest and hundreds more lined the route.

Mikey's family and friends established a campaign in his name to express concern with the high rate of custody deaths in the United Kingdom.

The Mikey Powell Campaign for Justice shows solidarity with other families that have lost loved ones within police, penal and mental health institutions across the country. We have vowed to lend our support to local, regional and national campaign's for justice and reform.

The Powell family demands that openness; transparency and Police cooperation should be at the very heart of investigations into deaths in custody, and the Government must act on its own principles of ‘equality for all’ in ensuring that this is the case. The family of Mikey Powell, like families before us, never dreamt such tragedy could come so suddenly.

Tippa Naphtali

Mikey's Cousin