Sgt Matiu Ratana: Murder accused denies intending to fire gun

Sgt Matiu Ratana was head coach at East Grinstead Rugby Club

A man accused of murdering Metropolitan Police sergeant Matiu Ratana has denied he meant to pull the trigger.

Louis De Zoysa shot Sgt Ratana, 54, the on-duty custody sergeant, at Croydon custody centre on 25 September 2020.

The defendant, who denies murder, told Northampton Crown Court he had hypermobility, a condition that means it is easier to bend and stretch.

He admitted he pointed a gun, while he was handcuffed, at Sgt Ratana's chest but denied he meant to shoot him.

The prosecution alleges Mr De Zoysa, from Banstead in Surrey, "pulled the trigger on purpose four times" in a holding room.

Louis De Zoysa used a whiteboard and pen to help him communicate in court

The jury has heard Mr De Zoysa was hit in the neck by one of the bullets. He was left with brain damage and has difficulty communicating, sometimes using a whiteboard to answer questions. 

During the hearing, Mr De Zoysa was cross-examined by the prosecution barrister Jocelyn Ledward, who showed him the video of his journey in a police van to the custody suite that night.

"At this time where was the gun?" Ms Ledward asked, and he pointed to the area under his left armpit.

She questioned where the gun was at various stages in the journey and when he got to the police station. Each time Mr De Zoysa said "I don't know".

Ms Ledward asked Mr De Zoysa why he was moving around in the footage shot in the van, to which he replied "hyperventilating," as well as later adding there were "no seatbelts".

Asked whether he had been "moving the gun out of the holster?", Mr De Zoysa responded: "I don't know. Hypermobility."

"You have hypermobility?" she followed up. He replied: "Yeah. Easier."

Asking him to clarify whether that meant it was "easier to bend and stretch", he responded: "Yeah."

Ms Ledward questioned whether he had "put the gun in your hand so that you could fire it?", to which Mr De Zoysa said: "I don't know."

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The defendant was also shown CCTV footage of him walking to the holding cell, and slow-motion footage of the moment he brought the gun out from behind his back in the cell.

Mr De Zoysa confirmed, when asked by Ms Ledward, that he pointed the gun at Sgt Ratana's chest and then pulled the trigger.

She then asked: "Did you mean to pull the trigger at that point?"

He responded: "No."

When asked about what he had been saying in the minute before the gun went off, the defendant replied: "Sick...Throw up."

Asked whether he had been "feeling sick" by defence lawyer Imran Khan KC, Mr De Zoysa said: "Yeah. Something happening in the mind... Like puking... Butterflies."

Mr Khan also asked if Mr De Zoysa had wanted to kill himself with the gun that day, and he replied "no".

'Suffered an autistic meltdown'

Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Dinesh Maganty also appeared as an expert witness.

Mr Khan asked Dr Maganty: "Is it your considered opinion that Louis De Zoysa suffered an autistic meltdown at the time?"

Dr Maganty said: "If the account given by him to me is accepted, and the prosecution narrative is not, then yes.

"But if the prosecution narrative is accepted in its entirety, then no."

Asked by Mr Khan if a person being "overwhelmed by autistic meltdown" was "not in control of their actions", Dr Maganty said "you can't be in control if you're completely overwhelmed".

However, Dr Maganty said that "if, as the prosecution case is, he brought the gun out, he was planning it, he intended to do it, that's entirely not consistent with an autistic meltdown".

The trial continues.

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