An innocent black 16-year-old arrested for attempted murder after his suicidal mother threw herself off a block of flats has won a £130,000 payout from the Met Police. 

Daryl McLune sued the force for race discrimination and false imprisonment after he was handcuffed and kept in custody for almost 24 hours - despite being at his grandmother's at the time of his mother's attempted suicide.

His mother, Annette McLune, jumped from the roof of the five-storey apartment in Wandsworth, London, in July 2021, having been in a 'dark place' following a Covid-19 infection.

She survived the fall but suffered 'catastrophic' injuries to her brain, hip and arm after hitting an iron railing.

Mr McLune, a diligent student with 'great grades' who had never had any contact with the police before, arrived at the flat to discover his mother fighting for her life at the foot of the apartments.

But just 26 minutes later he was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and dragged to Wandsworth police station. 

Harrowing police bodycam footage played in court showed Mr McLune drop to the ground and repeatedly cry 'I wasn't even here' as he was handcuffed.

Now after a seven-day trial, a jury found that Mr McLune was racially discriminated against and treated 'less favourably than they would have treated a non-black boy.'

The decision and findings of false imprisonment and a breach of his human rights, means the Met is now liable to make a compensation payout.

Daryl has claimed £130,000 after the ordeal had a profound effect on his life, leaving him with PTSD and nightmares. 

Mr McLune sued Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, claiming racially biased officers were too quick to 'jump to the conclusion' that he was a suspect, rather than a 'child in crisis.'

He claimed that officers - influenced by their perception of him as a black teenager - had detained him rather than investigating properly.

The trauma of the ordeal had a profound impact on his life and education, going from a student with 'great grades' to one who 'couldn't find it in himself to go to school,' the jury at Central London County Court was told.

However, the commissioner fought the claim with Met lawyers arguing that officers were only doing their job in investigating a 'serious and critical incident.'

Officers treated the incident as 'suspicious' after blood was discovered in the flat and it was believed something untoward may have happened. 

Opening the case earlier this week, Mr McLune's barrister Frederick Powell told the court: 'We are here to seek accountability for what happened to Daryl when he was a 16-year-old boy.'

He said police were called to Bembridge House in Wandsworth, by Daryl's father, Travayne McLune, after he found a bedroom window open, blood on the sill and floor, and his wife missing.

Officers who arrived found she had fallen five floors after climbing through her window and walking around guttering to the other side of the flats.

Police initially questioned Daryl's father while paramedics worked to save Ms McLune's life, before Daryl arrived having cycled round from his grandmother's.

He was then handcuffed in the street, as officers told him he was under arrest on suspicion of the attempted murder of his mother.

Mr McLune was released from custody less than a week later and police informed him that no further action would be taken, after discovering a suicide note and bloody razor blades in the flat.

Mr Powell said the arrest was driven by their perception of Daryl as a black teenager.

'The scene had to be made safe, she had to be treated and the police were entitled to investigate what had happened to her,' he told the jury.

'The issue is whether in the midst of that uncertainty, the police acted lawfully in moving from investigating a grave incident to arresting Daryl, a black boy who had just arrived at the scene in distress, on suspicion of attempting to murder his own mother.

'You will need to consider whether they needed to handcuff him and keep him restrained for the period they did, whether they needed to keep him in custody overnight without telling him what had happened to his mother, and whether his race played a part consciously or unconsciously in how quickly and how harshly he was treated.

'Our case is that when you hear the evidence the picture will be clear. We say this was not a case of careful and fair policing of a suspect - it was premature criminalisation of a child in crisis.'

The barrister said his client had never been in trouble with police before, adding: 'This was the very first time he ever experienced the back of a police van or the inside of a holding cell.

'He is a person of unblemished good character and is looking to you to restore his reputation that was taken from him that day.

'He was not an adult, he was a child. He was a son arriving at a catastrophic scene involving his mother. He was frightened, distressed and desperate for information.

'His case is that race formed a part of the way he was seen. He was too quickly treated as a suspect, as a risk, as somebody who had to be controlled.'

He said blood-stained razor blades and a suicide note - which referenced being ill with Covid and said 'I have nothing left in me to fight' - were later found in the flat.

'That supported an obvious self-harm or mental health explanation for what happened,' he said.

'This was always an incident with obvious alternative explanations and the police needed to do a proper investigation, rather than leaping to conclusions.

'This isn't about calling anyone a racist monster. He doesn't have to persuade you that an officer used racist language. He doesn't even have to prove they were consciously racist.

'Discrimination can be unconscious. It can appear in people's assumptions, in their speed of judgment as to how behaviour is interpreted.

'Daryl should have been treated firstly and primarily as a child who was distressed and a potential witness to a family catastrophe.

'This mistake wasn't harmless, it deprived him of his liberty, subjected him to force.

'His arrest and detention did take a profound psychological toll on him and it is an emotional weight he carries to this day.

'The mental anguish caused by this incident damaged his educational prospects, his employment prospects, and it changed his life trajectory.'

The judge will give a decision on the compensation amount at a later date. 

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