There are some events where I become more emotionally involved than others, and the annual United Families and Friends Campaign procession to remember all those who have died in the custody of police or prison officers, in immigration detention or psychiatric hospitals, held on the last Saturday in October, is one of them.
The first of these marches I photographed was in 2000, but it was in 2003 that I remember finding tears streaming down my face as I took pictures as I photographed Pauline Campbell speaking about her daughter Sarah who had died died in Styal prison
because the prison authorities and staff simply would not recognise her condition. It hit me hard partly because she was an impressive speaker, but perhaps more because she came from a not dissimilar background, around my age and working (as I was still part-time) in FE. Her daughter was just a few years younger than my sons.
Pauline Campbell speaking in 2003
She became a full-time campaigner for the cause of women in prison, working with organisations including the Howard League for Penal Reform (she became a trustee) and in 2005 was awarded the individual award of the Emma Humphreys memorial prize organisation, for “highlighting the distressing reality of women’s lives and deaths in prison”. Later I got to know her better, particularly after I photographed her trying to throw herself in front of prison vans at Holloway on a cold winter night, and received many e-mails from her encouraging me in my work. But a few months later she became another victim, found dead beside her daughter’s grave.
I’ve come to know others who have lost sons or brothers or other friends and relatives over the years, and have photographed some of them on many occasions as well as this annual march. It is still a very emotional event for me as well as for them. I’m not sure how this affects my photography, but perhaps it makes me try harder to capture their emotions.
Stephanie Lightfoot-Bennet talks about the killing of her twin brother Leon Patterson by Manchester police in 1992
His sister Jo holds a picture of Thomas Orchard, killed by police in Exeter in 2012
Ricky Bishop was killed in Brixton Police Station in 2001 – his sister speaks about the failure to prosecute the 12 officers involved
Ajibola Lewis, whose son Olaseni Lewis died after being restrained by police at Bethlem Royal Hospital in 2010
Marcia Rigg holds a leaflet about her brother Sean Rigg, killed by police in Brixton Police Station in 2008
Carole Duggan, Mark Duggan’s aunt with two of his children.
I’ve written in the past about a number of these cases, and you can find more about them on the 4WardEver UK web site.
Relatively few of these custody deaths are properly investigated, and it was only the consistent and determined campaigning by the Rigg family that led to an inquest jury coming to the conclusion that the police had used “unsuitable and unnecessary force” on him, that officers failed to uphold his basic rights and that the failings of the police “more than minimally” contributed to his death. The inquest on Mark Duggan currently taking place has already revealed many inconsistencies in the police evidence, which together with that from other eye-witnesses make it hard to avoid the conclusion that his death was the kind of extra-judicial execution that we would condemn if it happened in other countries.
More pictures at United Families & Friends Remember Killed.
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
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