Adam Chandler

Adam Chandler died after being attacked in the street after allegedly stealing a bicycle.

He was later found unconscious in Hales Street near Pool Meadow bus station in Coventry city centre on the morning of 13 June 2016 at 10.50am and taken to hospital where he later died.

Three men were charged with his manslaughter but acquitted after the judge threw the case out saying that there was 'no case to answer' after medical evidence submitted by a forensic pathologist cast uncertainty over the precise cause of Adam Chandler's death. One of the men had admitted manslaughter, but the charge against him was later vacated.

The police were initially called out on reports of the theft of a bicycle.

When the judge explained his ruling, he said, 'The prosecution case is that the deceased, Adam Chandler, stole a bike belonging to a man from outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Coventry. Another man, who also had a bike with him, gave chase on his cycle. The first man and a third man pursued him on foot. The chase was over a distance of approximately 1,000m. It was the second man on his bike who originally caught up with the deceased. He pushed or threw the deceased from his bike causing him to end up on the ground. The second man then began to assault the deceased. He was soon joined by the other men who similarly assaulted the man on the ground. Both men accept that they chased after the deceased, asserting that they intended to retrieve the stolen bike. The second man does not dispute that he forced the deceased from his bike on to the ground but the first and second both deny using any violence to the deceased thereafter'.

The judge then detailed the pathologists report that stated that Adam Chandler had a number of pre-existing health problems, including hepatitis C, a cirrhotic liver, a slightly enlarged heart, a significantly enlarged spleen and osteoporosis and said that in addition to that, toxicological results revealed that he had twice the legal limit of alcohol for driving in his bloodstream and indications that he had recently taken a number of legal and illegal drugs including cocaine, which were said in total would have 'rendered him more susceptible to arrhythmia and heart failure than a member of the community without such conditions'.

The pathologist also stated that he thought that Adam Chandler could have had a fatal heart attack at any moment without any supervening events taking place and that as such, he could not exclude the possibility that his death was a spontaneous death that was unrelated to the events leading up to it.

As such, it was concluded that his death was complicated and that his energetic pursuit through the streets of Coventry on a bike might have triggered the event which led to his heart attack and then his death. The pathologist also agreed that the combination of the pursuit and of him being pulled off the bike might also have provided the necessary trigger. However, the pathologist also noted that, 'Of course, these two events combined with an assault might have had the same effect'. He said that, on balance, although the assault was part of the process of triggering his death, he could not be certain of that.

The judge noted that if the assault had been of a certain ferocity that it could have at least been a partial cause of death but said there was no evidence for the jury to be certain about that and that if the jury decided that it did, then their conclusion would have been 'unsafe and illogical'.

The judge then concluded by saying, 'I will allow these submissions of no case to answer on the basis that causation cannot properly be established by the prosecution'.

As such, the Crown Prosecution Service said that they decided not to pursue the case against the man that had admitted manslaughter and his guilty plea to manslaughter was vacated.

The judge also then rejected a separate charge against one of the other men for robbery but rejected it and the charges against all three men were dismissed.