Police doctor faces manslaughter charge

A doctor faces a manslaughter charge after a man he ruled was fit to be detained died in police custody, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said today.

Dr Hisham El-Baroudy, a former forensic medical examiner, will be charged with gross negligence manslaughter after Andrzej Rymarzak died of opiate and alcohol intoxication at Chelsea police station in London just hours after being examined in January last year.

He will appear before City of Westminster magistrates on January 6.

Four police officers - an inspector, two police sergeants and a police constable - and a civilian detention officer present at the custody suite at various times on the evening of January 21 and the morning of January 22 last year will not be charged, the CPS said.

Sally Walsh, the reviewing lawyer for the CPS special crime division, said: "I have decided that Dr El-Baroudy should be charged with gross negligence manslaughter for his conduct on the night of Mr Rymarzak's death.

"I am satisfied that there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of proving that Dr El-Baroudy owed Mr Rymarzak a duty of care, that he was grossly negligent and that his negligence contributed to Mr Rymarzak's death.

"I am also satisfied that a prosecution is clearly in the public interest."

Mr Rymarzak was arrested near Old Brompton Road in Kensington shortly before 8.30pm on January 21 last year after being abusive towards an ambulance crew responding to a call from a member of the public who had seen him in distress.

He was arrested in connection with an allegation of causing fear or provocation of violence under Section 4 of the Public Order Act and taken to Chelsea police station, where he was put in a cell.

Officers called an ambulance when they were unable to wake him the following morning, but he was pronounced dead at the station shortly after 5.30am.