Man jumped to his death in police station - inquest

A 68-year-old man jumped to his death from the top of a phone booth inside an east London police station after spending 18 hours in the public waiting area, an inquest has heard.

Before it happened, Peter Jones wrote a suicide note and rocked backwards and forwards while talking to himself but this behaviour was not seen by officers at the time, the court was told.

It was "more than likely" that police would have intervened and prevented his death if his actions had been spotted, a jury concluded.

Senior coroner for Inner North London, Mary Hassell, blamed a lack of reception staff and warned the Met that similar deaths could happen again unless action was taken.

Mr Jones died in November 2022 at Stoke Newington Police Station.

He suffered devastating injuries when he landed on the concrete floor.

CCTV footage later revealed he displayed "behaviours to indicate that he was an immediate danger to himself", according to the inquest verdict.

The inquest jury ruled the Met had failed to keep "sufficient oversight" of the public reception area.

The court was told that CCTV monitors were poorly positioned in the station's rear office and there was a lack of police staff stationed in the public facing area.

Instead several officers were sitting in a back office facing each other.

"During his time at Stoke Newington Police Station, the CCTV shows that Mr Jones displayed sufficient behaviours to indicate that he was an immediate danger to himself which, if seen by police staff, would have resulted in action that probably would have prevented his death," the verdict read.

Ms Hassell also criticised the structure of the flat topped phone booth, saying Mr Jones would otherwise have had "no means" to take his life in that way.

Jurors determined that Mr Jones died by suicide.

Ms Hassell has sent a prevention of future deaths report to the Met.

"In my opinion, action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe that you have the power to take such action," the senior coroner told the force.

Scotland Yard will have 56 days to respond.

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