Police used excessive force in arrest of Edir da Costa, inquest told

Expert witness says officers were too slow to give the 25-year-old first aid

Police officers who restrained and pepper-sprayed Edir da Costa on the night he was fatally injured used unusual force for a stop and search and failed to give him first aid quickly enough, an expert witness at the inquest into his death has said.

Joanne Caffrey, a specialist in restraint who was a police officer for 23 years, said that it was not necessary for officers to have struck the 25-year-old father of one or jabbed a pressure point in his neck while attempting to restrain him for a stop and search under section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.