Sean Rigg death: Officer 'made mistake' claiming to check on detainee

Sean Rigg died in police custody in 2008

A police custody sergeant has told a trial he "made a mistake" when he told an inquest into a man's death he had checked on him in a police van.

Sean Rigg died at a police station in 2008 after being held in a police van.

Paul White, 53, who denies perjury, told the police watchdog in 2009 and then the inquest in 2012 that he had checked on Mr Rigg in the van.

The prosecution alleges he only apologised after being caught out by CCTV years later.

Mr Rigg, 40, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and in the weeks before his death had not taken his medication, the court heard.

He fell ill while being held in the police van.

'Got it very wrong'

Mr White told Southwark Crown Court he was shocked when he saw CCTV footage which made him realise he could not have visited the police van.

"I was completely shell-shocked," he said.

"I just apologised because I knew I was wrong.

"What was going through my mind I do not know, but I clearly got it very wrong."

Mr White told prosecutor Max Hill QC he could not remember what happened on the night of Mr Rigg's death.

He told the jury he was "completely confused" about the sequence of events leading up to finding an unresponsive Mr Rigg curled up in the foetal position on the floor of the caged area of the custody suite he had been transferred to.

Mr Hill told him: "As a trained and experienced police officer it simply won't do for you to say 'I can't explain how it happened'."

The trial continues.