News, Manchester
A tram worker accused of the manslaughter of a young father who died after being restrained in Manchester will not face a retrial after a jury failed to reach a verdict.
Jack Barnes, 29, suffered a cardiac arrest after being held down for about 90 seconds on 11 October 2016 and died in hospital just under two months later.
Three men had already been found not guilty of manslaughter but there were no verdicts returned for Metrolink security contractor Stephen Rowlands, 67, after a four-week trial in Liverpool Crown Court.
Mr Barnes’ mother Patricia Gerrard said she was “devastated” and felt “empty” after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told her of its decision.
Ms Gerrard, 58, said: “I’m devastated because we have tried for so long and we’ve got nothing at the end of it.
“It’s been a never-ending battle.”
The CPS said in light of the verdicts against the other three Metrolink contractors it did not believe there was a realistic prospect of conviction against former police officer Mr Rowlands.
Its lawyers had twice declined to bring charges against any of the men until an inquest into Mr Barnes’ death in February 2021 ended with a conclusion of unlawful killing.
The court heard Mr Barnes, originally from Hull, East Yorkshire, had recently moved to Manchester and was on a day out with friends riding the city’s Metrolink tram network.
He had become embroiled in a row with a group of customer service representatives deployed to monitor anti-social behaviour on the network, who accused the group of smoking illegal drugs.
The row ended with Mr Barnes swinging a draw-string bag towards the group before fleeing with another man.
Mr Rowlands and his acquitted colleagues, Paul Fogarty, Brian Gartside and Matthews Sellers, chased Mr Barnes across the city centre for nine minutes before he was tackled to the ground by Mr Gartside, his inquest heard.
Body-worn camera footage recorded Mr Barnes telling the men he could not breathe several times.
The hearing was told it also recorded Mr Rowlands saying: “If you struggle, I will put you to sleep. It won’t kill you but you will go to sleep for a while.”
The CPS said it had “carefully considered” whether there was a realistic chance of Mr Rowlands being convicted after a second trial but concluded there was not.
A representative said: “We understand that this news will be extremely disappointing to Mr Barnes’ family and have written a letter to explain our reasoning in more detail.”
Ms Gerrard said she wanted the law around restraint to be changed and planned to speak to her MP soon.
“There needs to be a law which makes it compulsory for people to have proper training in restraint,” she said.
