Sgt Matt Ratana: PC abandoned good practice during search, inquest told

Sgt Matt Ratana, who was head coach at East Grinstead Rugby Club, was shot dead in a custody suite in Croydon

A Met Police officer who missed a gun when he searched a man who then shot dead his colleague, has told an inquest he "abandoned basic good practice".

Sgt Matt Ratana was killed with an antique revolver concealed by a suspect in a custody suite in September 2020.

PC Rich Davey, then a probationary officer, admitted he did not follow Met Police policy after he stopped Louis De Zoysa in south London.

He agreed that an adequate search would have located the gun and holster.

PC Davey told the coroner's court he thought he was doing a "safe, thorough and systematic search", but having watched police footage he conceded he could have spent more time searching the suspect's back.

He said he did not know if Sgt Ratana would still be alive if he had followed Met Police policy.

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PC Davey had found a pouch containing bullets in one of De Zoysa's pockets at the start of the search.

Earlier he told the inquest he thoroughly searched the areas a firearm might have been secreted, including "under his arms, in his waistband".

"I was thinking about trying to find a firearm. I was doing as thorough a search as I could beside the road," he said.

PC Davey confirmed that one of the reasons he and his colleague PC Samantha Still stopped Louis De Zoysa was because he was wearing a bulky coat on a warm night - but he left De Zoysa's coat on during the search.

Coroner Sarah Ormond-Walshe had previously been shown by a police trainer what a standard search looked like; dividing the body into quarters and carefully searching each quarter.

Louis De Zoysa was seen wriggling in the police van as he repositioned his gun

PC Davey conceded that by searching De Zoysa's pockets first he had not carried out a search according to the training. He said he had seen De Zoysa reaching for his pockets and "I made a risk assessment to go for those pockets first".

The barrister for the coroner Richard Furniss asked PC Davey if not finding the firearm was a human error.

"Correct," PC Davey replied.

Mr Furniss then asked PC Davey if that error had been contributed to by not using a standard search technique. PC Davey said he did not know.

After De Zoysa was arrested for possession of the bullets and possession of cannabis with intent to supply, PC Davey accompanied him to the custody suite.

He admitted he did not observe De Zoysa properly in the van, nor hold on to him as he walked from the van to the custody suite, as he should have done.

It was there, in a holding cell, that De Zoysa produced the firearm from under his clothing and shot Sgt Ratana in the heart.

De Zoysa is serving a life sentence for murder with a whole life tariff.

The three-week inquest continues.

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