G4S: guard kills child? No problem, promote him?

G4S is a huge security company, to whom the UK authorities have outsourced all sorts of work, including work for prisons, immigration services, and children’s homes. There have been many stories about their thuggish behaviour (this is the company who killed Jimmy Mubenga) although not much is ever confirmed or results in action, as guards who kill people through restraint holds can always claim that they didn’t receive proper training.

Nine years ago, David Beadnall was working as a guard at a children’s home. He and three other guards restrained a fifteen year old boy who had refused to clean a sandwich toaster, thereby killing him.

A third officer then came into the room and Gareth was placed in a hold called the Seated Double Embrace. Two staff members held his upper body and pushed his torso forward towards his knees while one officer held his head.

Gareth complained: ‘I can’t breathe’.

Beadnall responded: ‘if you can talk then you can breathe’.

Gareth said he was going to defecate.

He was told: ‘you are going to have to shit yourself’ and the restraint continued.

Gareth did defecate. The restraint continued. Gareth vomited. The restraint continued. Gareth slumped forward. The restraint carried on for several minutes. When the restraint stopped it was too late.

Attempts to resuscitate him failed. The cause of death was recorded as asphyxia resulting from inhalation of gastric content and his body position during the period of physical restraint.

Now, Beadnall appears to have been promoted to Health and Safety Manager of G4S Children’s Homes. You can read more from Our Kingdom here. There are links to further articles about G4S by the same journalist on the page.