Sgt Matiu Ratana: Probationer officer missed gun used in murder - inquest

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

An experienced officer failed to point out an incorrect search technique used by her probationer colleague who missed the gun used to murder Sgt Matiu Ratana, an inquest has heard.

Sgt Ratana was killed by Louis De Zoysa in a custody suite in September 2020.

De Zoysa opened fire with an antique revolver in Croydon, south London.

During a search, Met Police officers failed to find the gun the 26-year-old had in an underarm holster, despite discovering bullets in his pocket.

During part of probationer PC Richard Davey's search of the gunman, which ignored training techniques, PC Samantha Still checked police records and spoke to colleagues on her radio, the inquest at Croydon Town Hall heard.

PC Still, who had six years' experience at the time, agreed this went against force guidelines as she was meant to give the search her full attention.

Dominic Adamson KC, representing Sgt Ratana's partner, asked her: "PC Davey's failure to do a proper search was your failure to perform the role of a cover officer, wasn't it?"

PC Still replied: "It [the gun] should have been found."

Mr Adamson went on: "It should have been found and in fact you should have pointed out that he had not done a proper search, hadn't you?"

The officer replied: "Correct."

Louis De Zoysa, pictured here shortly before the shooting, is serving a whole-life prison sentence for murder

PC Still said she had believed at the time that the search was adequate and covered all areas of De Zoysa's body.

When PC Davey found the bullets, she initially mistook them for nitrous oxide canisters, the inquest heard.

Addressing Sgt Ratana's partner Su Bushby, who was watching via a link, PC Still said: "I'm sorry for your loss and the time you have gone through.

"I'm sorry this has happened."

'Autistic meltdown'

At Croydon's Windmill Road custody centre, De Zoysa managed to move his handcuffed arms from behind his back to fire at Sgt Ratana.

The 54-year-old New Zealand-born officer, who had served in the Met for almost 30 years and was three months from retirement, was hit in the chest by the first of three shots discharged by De Zoysa.

A second bullet struck him in the thigh before De Zoysa was wrestled to the ground by other officers, as a third round hit the cell wall.

Former tax office data analyst De Zoysa, who was living in a flat on a farm in Banstead, Surrey, at the time of the killing, discharged a fourth shot while on the cell floor, hitting an artery in his own neck and causing him brain damage and permanent physical impairment.

He is serving a whole-life prison sentence for Sgt Ratana's murder after a trial earlier this year, during which his legal team argued that he had been having an autistic meltdown at the time of the shooting.

The three-week inquest continues.

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