A gunman has been found guilty of murdering a custody sergeant after smuggling a revolver into a police station and opening fire in a holding cell while still in handcuffs. Former tax office data analyst Louis De Zoysa claimed diminished responsibility, but was unanimously convicted after a jury decided that he pulled the antique weapon’s trigger deliberately and did not suffer an autistic meltdown.
A three-week trial at Northampton Crown Court was shown distressing video footage of New Zealand-born Met Police Sergeant Matt Ratana, who was just weeks from retirement, being hit in the chest by the first of three shots discharged by De Zoysa within three seconds. Sgt Ratana died of his injuries in hospital despite the efforts of medical staff.
A second bullet struck the 54-year-old in the thigh, before De Zoysa was wrestled to the ground by other officers as a third round hit the cell wall at Croydon’s Windmill Road custody centre. De Zoysa, who was living in Banstead, Surrey, discharged a fourth shot while on the cell floor 16 seconds later, hitting an artery in his own neck and causing brain damage.
The 25-year-old, who now uses a wheelchair, has communication difficulties and is being treated at a healthcare unit in Northamptonshire, was arrested in London Road, Norbury, in the early hours of Friday September 25 2020. A bag containing seven bullets and cannabis were found during a search of De Zoysa’s clothing and body, but officers did not discover a .41-calibre revolver loaded with six rounds.
During the trial, prosecutors said De Zoysa “retrieved” the weapon from a holster under his left arm, while handcuffed to the rear, as he was being transported to Windmill Road in a police van. CCTV evidence suggested he managed to get hold of the gun with his right hand around 16 minutes before the shooting and then took advantage of a vent at the back of his overcoat to hide the weapon until the shooting.
Lawyers acting for Louis De Zoysa, who claims he did not mean to shoot Sgt Matt Ratana, argued the 25-year-old has a partial defence of diminished responsibility due to an “autistic meltdown”. Addressing the jury before it retired on Thursday, Imran Khan KC, defending, asked its members to consider the evidence by stepping into De Zoysa’s shoes.
“Look at it not from your point of view as neurotypical individuals… but from his,” Mr Khan said. The defence lawyer said of CCTV footage of the fatal shooting: “All this beggars belief, you may think.
“Out of the blue, without a hint of provocation, the gun was fired. The thought might be going through your head: ‘what the hell just happened and why did it happen?’
“The events cry out for an explanation because when you look at it, there appears to be no logical, rational, sane explanation for what you are seeing. The prosecution has not provided an explanation.
“What it shows is a young man completely out of control, out of his mind. “Anything else simply doesn’t make sense. Louis was someone experiencing a meltdown.”
The alternative to the defence’s suggested scenario, Mr Khan said, was the proposition that an autistic young man, surrounded by three police officers in a cell, was intent on murder in the middle of the night.
“If he was intent on murder how was he going to escape? It simply doesn’t make any sense,” Mr Khan said. Jurors deliberated for just over five hours over two days before unanimously convicting Louis De Zoysa, who listened to the verdict sitting in a wheelchair in the secure glass-fronted dock.
De Zoysa nodded twice as the judge confirmed with him that he had heard the verdict being announced by the jury foreman. Sgt Ratana’s partner, Su Bushby, and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley were among those in the public gallery as the verdict was returned.
