Before HM Assistant Coroner Andrew Bridgeman Manchester South Coroner’s Court

22 November – 6 December 2021

On the 12th April 2019, Gavin Brown, described by his family as a “cheeky chappie” who loved to make people laugh, was restrained in a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)-style chokehold outside of a pub in Manchester. He entered a cardiac arrest and died eight days later in hospital after suffering irreversible hypoxic ischaemic brain injury. After a jury inquest, the Coroner concluded that Gavin was unlawfully killed.

The jury found that Gavin was held in the chokehold, which restricted his ability to breathe, for over six minutes outside of The Melville Pub in Stretford.

One member of the public exited the pub after the altercation had begun and intervened in the restraint which was already being carried out by between five and six people. Despite none of them requesting his assistance, he applied an MMA-style chokehold on Gavin, whose body was being held down.

Despite a perceptible reduction in Gavin’s resistance and movement, the force of the neck restraint was not meaningfully reduced. The jury found that there were no attempts to speak to Gavin or check on his welfare while he was being restrained. One of the individuals involved was a Security Industry Authority (SIA)-licensed door supervisor who had received training on the risks of neck restraint and the need to monitor and respond to the condition of the person being restrained.

Since his death, Gavin’s family have been seeking for the truth about what happened that night. Following a police investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided not to prosecute any of the individuals implicated in Gavin’s death – a decision Gavin’s family described as ‘heart-breaking’ and which left them feeling “let down by the criminal justice system”. In an interview with BBC Northwest, Gavin’s sister, Sophie Penrose, said that from the beginning “it felt like Gavin’s life did not matter and we did not matter.”

Lucie Boase, a solicitor in Broudie Jackson Canter’s Inquests and Inquiries Team who represented Gavin’s family along with Frederick Powell of Doughty Street Chambers, commented:

It is a shame that Gavin’s family had to wait [for the inquest] to obtain answers about what happened; the fact that the jury felt able to reach a conclusion of unlawful killing is testament to the thorough investigation carried out by HM Coroner, Mr Bridgman.”

At the conclusion of the inquest, the Coroner said that he would ask Greater Manchester Police to review the case, and this process is currently underway. It is hoped by Gavin’s family that this will lead the CPS to bring charges against the individuals implicated in Gavin’s tragic death.

You can find a full article on Inquest’s website here.