Dalian Atkinson’s girlfriend says killer PC’s testimony was ‘haunting’

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Dalian Atkinson’s grieving girlfriend has said the thought a killer police officer’s voice was the last thing the the ex-Premier League footballer heard is ‘haunting’.

Karen Wright, 49, likened the former Aston Villa, Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich Town striker’s death to the police killing of George Floyd in the US.

West Mercia Police PC Benjamin Monk, 43, will be sentenced tomorrow after being convicted of manslaughter on Wednesday.

He killed Mr Atkinson by blasting him with a Taser three times and then kicking him twice in the head. 

The case is believed to be the first time an officer has faced a murder charge after a person was Tasered by police — and it is the first time in 35 years that a police officer has been convicted of manslaughter committed in the course of his duties.

A jury at Birmingham Crown Court was discharged on Thursday after failing to reach a verdict on Monk’s at the-time-lover West Mercia probationary constable Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith, 31, who was accused of assaulting with her baton while he was on the ground.

Ms Wright said officers told the family ‘it was either the Taser or the tickle stick’, referring to a police baton, moments before Mr Atkinson’s death.

Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, she said: ‘Dee was just a gorgeous soul. He’s had life-long harassment from the police. He felt as though he was hounded by police.

‘He was doing nothing wrong. The police were the last people he needed on the night he died. They inflamed the situation.’

She said she has been angry for five years while waiting for justice for the killing in Telford, Shropshire,  in Telford, Shropshire, on August 15, 2016.

Ms Wright described the wait as ‘torture’ and attended George Floyd protests while holding banners saying ‘Justice for Dalian’.

The mother-of-two, who runs a cleaning business, met Mr Atkinson when they were 17.

They split after ten years but reunited when Mr Atkinson turned 40 after he contacted her on Facebook.

Ms Wright said the ‘compassionate’ ex-footballer would run her baths and look after her, and lover her two boys from a different father.

She said she would have married him ‘in a heartbeat’ and he was the ‘man of my dreams’.

But listening to Monk claim he was ‘absolutely petrified’ when he killed unarmed Mr Atkinson was haunting, according to Ms Wright.

She said: ‘Hearing Monk try to justify what he did was really difficult. It haunts me. It’s one of the last voices Dee heard as he took his final breath.’

On the day of his death, Mr Atkinson was due for an appointment for high blood pressure, heart ­disease and kidney failure.

He was suffering from paranoia and mental health problems because his kidneys were failing to clear toxic chemicals.

Police were called to his father’s house after a neighbour reported shouting and Monk Tasered Mr Atkinson for 33 seconds after the ex-footballer said: ‘You can put 100,000 volts through me, I’m the Messiah.’

The police constable kicked Mr Atkinson twice in the head and Tasered him three times.

Mr Atkinson died on a 10-minute ambulance trip after suffering a cardio-respiratory ­arrest when he was handcuffed.

Monk was on Wednesday convicted of the manslaughter of Mr Atkinson and will be sentenced tomorrow.

The footballer’s family criticised the ‘completely unacceptable’ five-year delay in bringing his killer to justice.

Monk was slammed by relatives of the striker, who said they had been ‘sickened to hear’ him try to minimise his use of a Taser and two kicks to his victim’s head.

It is believed to be the first time in modern British criminal justice history a UK police officer has been found guilty of the manslaughter of a black man, according to Inquest, which supports the bereaved following state-related deaths.

According to the charity, no police officer has been found guilty of murder or manslaughter over a death in custody or following police contact in England and Wales since 1986.

A six-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court was told Monk fired a Taser three times and left two bootlace prints on Atkinson’s forehead near his father’s home in Meadow Close.

Jurors took 18 hours and 48 minutes to reach unanimous verdicts on Monk, who prosecutors said had exaggerated the threat posed by Atkinson and lied about the events to justify excessive and unlawful force.

In a statement following Monk’s conviction, Atkinson’s family said he was ‘much missed by all’.

The statement added: ‘We knew years ago about the terrible injuries inflicted by Pc Monk on Dalian, but have been unable to talk about them due to the criminal process. We are hugely relieved that the whole country now knows the truth about how Dalian died.

‘While it has been hard for us not to be able to talk about the details of Dalian’s death, it has been even harder to sit through this trial and to hear Pc Monk try to justify the force he used.

‘On the night he died, Dalian was vulnerable and unwell and needed medical attention. He instead received violence, and died with Pc Monk’s bootlace prints bruised onto his forehead.’

The family members added: ‘The fact that this case has taken nearly five years to get to trial is completely unacceptable, especially when you consider that Pc Monk’s identity was known to the prosecuting authorities from day one.’

The family also said the 48-year-old’s footballing talent ‘led him to achieve great things in his life’.

They said: ‘Our sincere hope is that now that the truth about his death is known, and justice has been done, we can start to remember him not for the manner in which he died, but for the way in which he lived.’

The trial was told Atkinson went into cardiac arrest after being taken from the scene in an ambulance, and was pronounced dead in hospital at 2.45am — about an hour after he was Tasered.

Prosecutors said Monk lied about the number of kicks he had delivered to the former sportsman’s head by claiming he could remember only one aimed at his shoulder.

The officer also claimed to have no recollection of placing his foot on Atkinson’s head as colleagues arrived at the scene.

Although he conceded he must have kicked Atkinson twice in the forehead because bootlace prints proved he had, the officer maintained his actions were lawful self-defence made necessary when his victim tried to get up.

Taser records showed Monk activated the weapon eight times for a total of more than 80 seconds using three Taser cartridges.

The jury was instructed to find Monk guilty of manslaughter if they were not sure he intended to cause serious harm but the unlawful force used was an act any reasonable person would realise was bound to pose a risk of physical harm.

On Thursday, the jury discharged from reaching a verdict on West Mercia probationary constable Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith accused of assaulting Mr Atkinson with a baton after he was Tasered to the ground.

The case against Ms Bettley-Smith, 31, ended in a hung jury.

Jurors deliberated for more than 21 hours at Birmingham Crown Court before telling the trial judge they would be unable, even if given further time, to reach a verdict on a charge alleging Bettley-Smith used unlawful force.

She told her trial she used necessary force to defend herself and others, but prosecutors claimed she had exaggerated the threat posed by former Aston Villa, Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich Town star Atkinson to ‘help’ Monk’s attempt to justify excessive force.