Sgt Matt Ratana: Desperate attempts made to save officer - inquest

Sgt Matiu Ratana was head coach at East Grinstead Rugby Club

Desperate attempts were made to keep Metropolitan Police sergeant Matt Ratana alive after he was shot in the heart by a man who had smuggled a gun into police custody, an inquest heard.

Paramedic Scott Grant, based at Croydon Ambulance Station, said he arrived at Croydon Custody Centre at 02:20BST on 25 September 2020.

He said there was a "scene of carnage".

Louis De Zoysa was convicted of Sgt Ratana's murder in June and is watching the inquest by videolink from prison.

The 25-year-old, from Surrey, had claimed diminished responsibility. In July, he was sentenced to a whole life order, meaning he will never be released from prison.

His parents, Elizabeth and Channa De Zoysa, are attending the inquest, at Croydon Town Hall, in person.

Mr Grant told the inquest he saw an injured man lying on the floor of the custody centre who he said he recognised and knew as 54-year-old Sgt Ratana from previous visits.

Louis De Zoysa is watching the inquest from Belmarsh Prison

He said that on his arrival, firearms officers were trying to resuscitate Sgt Ratana with CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation), but when he checked there was no electrical activity in his heart.

When the Hems (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) team arrived, they opened up Sgt Ratana's chest and Mr Grant described to the hearing how he helped to massage the heart while it was stitched up.

Sgt Ratana was transferred to St George's Hospital, in Tooting, but, soon after he arrived, a decision was made to cease CPR. The time of death was 04:10BST.

At a post-mortem examination that afternoon, Dr Ashley Fegan-Earl concluded that, although Sgt Ratana had also been shot in the right thigh, the cause of death was a "gunshot wound to the chest", the inquest was told.

The inquest began with a pen portrait of Sgt Ratana by his partner of five years, Su Bushby.

'I miss Matt'

"I miss Matt more than I can express," she told the coroner, Sarah Ormond-Walshe.

"He was my world and we were looking forward to spending the rest of our lives together."

Ms Ormond-Walshe, who is sitting without a jury, has said she wants to examine the "actions of police officers" and whether there were any "missed opportunities" to prevent Sgt Ratana's death.

De Zoysa had been stopped on the street earlier that morning and arrested after some ammunition was found in a pouch in his pocket, his trial earlier this summer heard. But the police officers who searched him on the street did not find the loaded antique revolver he was carrying in a holster under his arm.

It was that revolver that De Zoysa used to shoot Sgt Matt Ratana dead in a cell at the custody centre.

De Zoysa failed in his application to be legally-aided for the inquest, so does not have a lawyer.

The inquest will resume on Tuesday and is set to examine how De Zoysa was searched.

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