Sheku Bayoh: police error meant family could not say goodbye, says sister

Kadi Johnson tells inquiry into Bayoh’s death in 2015 that postmortem was carried out before family viewed body

The family of Sheku Bayoh were prevented from saying their final goodbyes because a miscommunication by police meant a postmortem was carried out before his relatives were ready to identify his body, according to his sister.

In a morning of moving testimony at the inquiry into Bayoh’s death in custody, his sister Kadi Johnson set out a catalogue of alleged errors, miscommunications, conflicting information and apparent absence of compassion as she described her family’s treatment by the police and authorities from the moment they were first informed the 31-year-old had died.