Sheku Bayoh inquiry must be ‘watershed moment’, say campaigners

A postmortem found 23 injuries on Sheku Bayoh, who was hit with batons and restrained on the pavement. Photograph: Family Handout/PA

The public inquiry into the death in police custody of Sheku Bayoh, which starts taking evidence this week, must be a “watershed moment” with the potential to prompt a wider dialogue about racism in Scotland, campaigners have said.

The hearings begin almost exactly seven years since the father-of-two died after being restrained by officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on 3 May 2015, and marks the first major public examination of institutional racism in Scotland since the Black Lives Matter movement galvanised around the murder of George Floyd in 2020.