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Surveillance footage captured a 2012 incident in which Officer James Kiddie assaulted Sarah Reed while she was being held at a prison on shoplifting charges. In a separate incident, Reed was found dead in a prison cell Jan. 11, 2016.
A British woman who was arrested and assaulted by an officer in 2012 after being accused of shoplifting has died in a prison cell in a separate incident.
According to The Independent, on Jan. 11, while in jail for reasons authorities have not confirmed, 32-year-old Sarah Reed was found “‘unresponsive” at HMP Holloway, a prison in London. Workers attempted CPR but were unsuccessful and Reed was pronounced dead.
Reed’s family reportedly spoke with civil rights activist Lee Jasper about Reed’s death, saying that they were unable to see her body when they arrived at the prison and that officials say that she “‘strangled’ herself whilst lying on her bed,” a claim they believe to be untrue.
No information has been confirmed as to how Reed died or why Reed was in prison.
The Independent reports that the Prisons and Probation and Ombudsman has launched an investigation into Reed’s death, but added that the probe is standard for all deaths in police custody.
According to the Independent, in November 2012, Officer James Kiddie assaulted Reed in prison after she was caught shoplifting at a Uniqlo, a popular U.K. fashion store. She was detained and surveillance footage captured Kiddie punching and grabbing Reed by her hair. Kiddie was fired and “found guilty of common assault, sentenced to a 150-hour community order,” the Independent reports.
Reed, who reportedly suffered from mental illness, also was allegedly sexual assaulted by an officer during a different incident while in prison, also in 2012.
Read more at The Independent.
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