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Mentally ill man hit in ambulance before dying

A MAN detained under the Mental Health Act was beaten in an ambulance by police days before he died, his family told an inquest yesterday.

Kingsley Burrell died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham on March 31 2011, four days after he was sectioned following a disturbance at a shop in the city.

His family — many of whom wore red T-shirts with his photo and the slogan “Justice for Kingsley Burrell” to Birmingham Coroners Court — also said that he was left handcuffed on the floor of a hospital ward and injected in the head by an officer.

Emergency services were called on March 27 after Mr Burrell, a father of three, dialled 999 to say that armed gang members had “put a machine gun” to his head while he was with his four-year-old son.

But CCTV footage shown to the jury suggested that no-one had threatened him and that instead, he had become very agitated while at the shop, gesticulating wildly.

He was taken to a mental health unit and died four days later after a heart attack.

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