Billy Sampson: PC had received death threats before suicide

PC Billy Sampson, 27, was charged with assault after footage filmed after a match between Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday was published on social media

A PC who killed himself as he waited to go on trial for an alleged assault on a teenage football fan had received death threats, his mother has told a coroner.

PC Billy Sampson, 27, was charged with assaulting a 16-year-old boy following a football match between Barnsley and Sheffield Wednesday on 8 February 2020.

Footage on social media showed an officer hitting a fan with a baton.

His mother, Nicky Sampson, told the hearing her son had to install a CCTV system and high fences at his home.

The inquest, held at the Medico-Legal Centre in Sheffield, heard Mr Sampson had been heartened after he received an expert's report which concluded the force he used was "justified and proportionate".

But the coroner was told how, the day before he was found dead, the officer had been told he was to be charged in relation to an unrelated domestic matter.

His mother told the inquest that this allegation was not true.

Mrs Sampson told the court how her son was targeted after his arrest in relation to the video, which was posted online along with details of where he lived.

'Shocked and surprised'

"He got death threats. He came to talk to me and he explained how incredibly scared he was," she told the hearing.

Mrs Sampson said the coverage of the football match incident in Midland Street, Barnsley, "did not tell the full story of what happened".

Det Insp Richard Armstrong, of South Yorkshire Police, described how he was appointed as the welfare officer to support Mr Sampson after he was arrested in 2020.

Mr Armstrong described how Mr Sampson thought he would be cleared at his trial, especially after the expert report on his use of force was obtained from the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

But he said that when he told the officer he was going to be charged with coercive and controlling behaviour in February 2022 he was "shocked and surprised and clearly angry about the decision".

Mr Armstrong said Mr Sampson told him: "I will just fight this at court as well."

Mr Sampson was found unresponsive at his house in Chapeltown, Sheffield, on 11 February 2022, with a post-mortem examination finding he had overdosed on prescription drugs.

Recording a verdict of suicide, assistant coroner Katy Dickinson concluded that Mr Sampson "suffered with his mental health due to allegations against him".

She said it "caused him distress and is likely the reason behind his death", adding: "What a fine man he was."

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