Homeless man died after being ejected from police station in freezing weather, inquest hears
A homeless man died of pre-existing medical conditions exacerbated by hypothermia after he was ejected from a London police station into sub-zero temperatures, an inquest jury has concluded.
Pericles Malagardis, 63, was found unresponsive outside Uxbridge station nearly five hours after he was asked to leave.
The inquest heard the "the deterioration in his physical condition was not noticed” by station staff who watched a DVD inside as he waited overnight in freezing conditions to collect his dog.
The Greek national was sleeping rough at Heathrow airport and had gone to the west London police station on 4 March 2016 to collect the dog, which had been placed in kennels while he in hospital the day before.
He was told the dog would be brought to the station for collection the following day.
Malagardis remained in the station’s reception until 12:40am on 5 March before he was asked to leave and then removed by constable Bhupinder Kalsi with the aid of a colleague.
He then remained outside the station throughout the night and was not checked on until 5:30am, when he was found to be unresponsive and the London Ambulance Service (LAS) was called.
The temperature was around -1C at the time. Malagardis was pronounced dead in hospital more than an hour later at 6:45am.
In November 2018, PC Kalsi was dismissed from the Metropolitan Police for gross incompetence.
A disciplinary hearing heard despite awareness of the freezing temperature outside the station, the officer failed to monitor Malagardis’s condition while he was outside for nearly five hours.
It was also found that PC Kalsi had been watching a film on DVD with a colleague for most of the night.
The disciplinary panel found the officer had also “omitt[ed] information requested by the LAS regarding actions taken to support Mr Malagardis and failed to follow instruction and training, when dealing with unresponsive casualties, as set out in the emergency life support treatment training manual".
Sal Naseem, regional director of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), said: “This was a particularly tragic case, so it turned out, Mr Malagardis was close to returning to home as money had been raised by local well-wishers to buy his flight back to Greece.”
He added: “The lack of care toward Mr Malagardis by the officer and the staff member was particularly cruel and the failings of the officer to give adequate first aid was the major reason for her dismissal.”
Mr Nassam concluded: “Police officers have a duty of care for people they come into contact with, and Mr Malagardis was clearly failed by this officer.
“More than four years on, the impact of Pericles Malargardis’ tragic death lives on. Our thoughts remain with those who knew him.”
The second police staff member who took part in the ejection was separately found to have shown poor performance after a management investigation in December 2018. They were instructed to update their emergency life support treatment training.
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