Leon Briggs: Witness saw ‘police on top of him’

A man has spoken of the moment he witnessed Leon Briggs being held down by police officers in Luton during a mental health crisis.

Jerome Fehr told the BBC he saw Mr Briggs, 39, “with his chest to the ground, facing the ground with two police officers on top of him” during the incident on Marsh Road in November 2013.

Mr Briggs was later taken into police custody but he fell unconscious in his cell and died in hospital.

An inquest jury found police officers and ambulance workers made a number of serious failures.

The inquest in Milton Keynes heard his primary cause of death was “amphetamine intoxication with prone restraint and prolonged struggling”. A secondary cause of death was given as coronary heart disease.