Crass high handed cops the world over will be doffing their cops to Essex Police. Detaining a corpse on route to the crematorium and telling the family that the funeral is cancelled is the sort of thing you might expect to happen in Belarus or Uzbekistan. It’s a bit more surprising when it happens in England.

Stuart Smith was arrested by officers in Colchester on September 14 and there have been subsequent allegations that they used excessive force. In any event Smith died three days later. One cop has been suspended and another placed on restricted duties while the famously robust and competent Independent Police Complaints Commission does its thing.  Smith had a history of drug use and a criminal record.

Almost a month after his death his family were taking him to the crematorium. When they were less than half a mile away a police car stopped the hearse and the body was taken back to the mortuary. It comes to something when you have to agree with a point made in the comments section of the Daily Mail site but as one reader pointed out:

“It would have been more sensitive to let the funeral go ahead, but remove the body immediately before it was placed in the fire, behind the scenes, with the family’s knowledge. To stop the cortege half a mile from the Crem is sheer brutality!”

A spokesperson for for Essex police wouldn’t explain why it had taken three weeks to take his body for further tests after his death. Still the force is not without some compassion for the family. It has said that it will pay for the second funeral. They wouldn’t do that in Uzbekistan.