It’s every family’s worst nightmare. The arrival of police officers at the door to break the news that a loved one has died.
In those circumstances we would all hope and expect that those officers, and their bosses, would behave with professionalism and courtesy.
That they would be open and transparent about what had happened.
And that their actions would be carried out with the best interests of the bereaved at heart.
That is not what the family of Sheku Bayoh were told yesterday.
Instead, a detective giving evidence to the inquiry into his death in 2015 said officers had been instructed not to tell Mr Bayoh’s family about his interactions with police earlier that day.
The same detective said this omission would have led to a loss of trust and rapport when relatives learned he had died after being restrained by police in Kirkcaldy’s Hayfield Road.
And it goes some way to explaining why Mr Bayoh’s family have consistently refused to accept the official line on the tragedy; why they have fought so doggedly to get to the truth.
Lord Bracadale’s inquiry has been set up to examine the circumstances surrounding the 31 year-old’s death and to establish whether race was a factor.
It has some way to go and, doubtless, many more stones to turn over.
But on the question of whether Police Scotland treated Sheku Bayoh’s family with the common decency and respect that any of us would expect in our time of grief and despair, yesterday’s evidence was damning.
