The police watchdog has decided that officers’ contact with Nicholas Brandram, the man arrested over the 2017 Putney Bridge push, must be investigated.
Brandram, 44, was found dead at his home in Chiswick on 15 September. The Metropolitan Police referred itself to the watchdog the next day, saying referral is required whenever a person dies following contact with police.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said on Friday it had “decided that an investigation is required”. It added: “We have recommended the review considers matters including the necessity and proportionality of arrest, what engagement was there with the media and considerations made in relation to Mr Brandram’s welfare and the relevant policy.”
The IOPC decided the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards should carry out the investigation. If it finds no potential misconduct by any officer, the Met’s final report must go to the IOPC for review.
His family have said he “took his own life after months of immense pressure caused by a Metropolitan Police investigation”.
His sisters, Alexia Hicks and Sophie Voelcker, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last week that he did not match the description of the jogger. Hicks called his arrest in June “hostile”, and said the Met had shown “urgency” in arresting him and having that reported in the press.
“I think he couldn’t understand why there wasn’t urgency to help clear his name,” she said. “He was, at one point, an officer in the Army. His reputation meant everything.”
“The Met, they were negligent, they were reckless, and they have failed our brother,” Hicks said.
The case
A jogger pushed a woman into the path of a bus on Putney Bridge on 5 May 2017. The driver swerved, and she suffered minor injuries. The Met closed the case in 2018 without charging anyone.
In April this year an individual gave officers information that opened new lines of inquiry. Brandram was arrested in June on suspicion of attempted grievous bodily harm. The Met has said officers judged the arrest “necessary and proportionate in order to seize devices and carry out further searches”.
The Met did not name him at the time. His name circulated widely on social media after the arrest.
He was later released under investigation, which carries no bail conditions and no date to return. He was never charged. No decision had been made to take no further action against him when he died. The Met said last week that its investigation into the 2017 incident “remains ongoing”.
An inquest into Brandram’s death opened at West London Coroner’s Court on Tuesday and was suspended because of the IOPC referral. The area coroner for London West, Melanie Lee, said “nobody and no organisation is on trial”.
The woman who was pushed has never been publicly named. More than nine years on, nobody has been charged over what happened to her.
If you are affected by anything in this article, Samaritans are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Call free on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, or visit samaritans.org.
