Cops 'viewed sex websites' as dad-of-two had cardiac arrest in cells

Police officers were viewing sex websites rather than keeping a “constant watch” on a dad-of-two who went into cardiac arrest in his cell and later died, an inquest heard.

Lloyd Butler, 39, was supposed to be monitored every 15 minutes but officers were "distracted" by a "website about women offering sex", according to his family's barrister, Stephen Cragg QC.

PC Dean Woodcock had also been making personal telephone calls on the station’s landline and his mobile phone, while Sergeant Mark Albutt was viewing Sky Sports and Next clothing websites while Mr Butler was in their care, it was claimed.

Mr Cragg claimed officers had gathered around PC Woodcock’s screen and laughed as they loaded the X-rated website, the Birmingham Mail reports.

But PC Woodcock denied the claims. He told the inquest: “I genuinely can’t remember what that website was. You don’t have sites like that on West Midlands Police computer. They are blocked.”

SWNS PC Dean Woodcock leaves Birmingham Coroners Court today after giving evidence at the inquest of Lloyd Butler, who died while in police custody in 2010. June 17 2014.

Mr Butler, from Birmingham, was taken to Stechford Police station for being drunk and incapable on August 4, 2010.

He was supposed to be “roused” every 15 minutes but officers regularly left him longer.

PC Woodcock was also heard on CCTV joking that one way of rousing Mr Butler, whose trousers had fallen down, would be to “hit him round the backside”, according to Mr Cragg.

Despite classifying Mr Butler as “high risk”, officers sent custody nurse Ian O’Hara to assess another prisoner first.

There was a 38-minute gap from the last time PC Woodcock checked on Mr Butler until Mr O’Hara entered the cell and immediately spotted he was in trouble.

“He was struggling to breathe, that was obvious from the hatch,” Mr O’Hara said.

“I checked for a pulse and got one and asked for PC Woodcock to get an ambulance straight away because someone in that condition shouldn’t be there.

“Next, a minute or a minute and a half after that, he suddenly stopped breathing and I could feel no pulse. It was there and then it wasn’t.”