Gardner son sues Straw and the Met

THE FAMILY of Joy Gardner are suing the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Condon, for the trauma her death caused to her mother and young son.

The legal action was launched yesterday more than five-and-a-half years after the Jamaican illegal immigrant collapsed when she was bound and gagged by police as she resisted a deportation order.

Mrs Gardner, 40, collapsed after being bound with 13ft of tape and died four days later in hospital on 1 August, 1993. Three police officers were cleared of her manslaughter.

Mrs Gardner's son Graeme, then aged five, was in the flat at Crouch End, north London, and was deeply traumatised, said the family's solicitor, Louise Christian. Mrs Gardner's mother, Myrna Simpson, who now cares for Graeme, is also claiming damages.