Killer of Met sergeant Matt Ratana loses conviction and sentence appeal bids

Louis De Zoysa, who was given a whole-life order for the murder of Metropolitan Police sergeant Matt Ratana, has lost bids to challenge his conviction and sentence at the Court of Appeal.

De Zoysa, 27, was told he would die behind bars in July 2023 after being convicted of Sgt Ratana’s murder the previous month.

Sgt Ratana died in hospital after being struck by two bullets in a holding cell in Croydon, south London, in September 2020.

At a hearing on Thursday, De Zoysa’s barristers told the Court of Appeal that he should be allowed to challenge his conviction and sentence, on the grounds that he was wrongly deemed fit to plead and stand trial, and that his sentence should not have been a whole life order.

In a ruling, Dame Victoria Sharp, Mr Justice Goss and Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb dismissed the appeal bids.

Dame Victoria said: “All applications will be refused, for reasons which we will give in writing.”

The judge added that the written reasons for their decision will come at a later date.

New Zealand-born Sgt Ratana was hit in the chest by the first of three shots discharged within three seconds, with a second striking the 54-year-old in the thigh before De Zoysa was wrestled to the ground by other officers.

A third round hit the cell wall at Croydon’s Windmill Road custody centre, before De Zoysa fired a fourth shot while on the cell floor 16 seconds later, which hit an artery in his own neck and caused brain damage.

De Zoysa, formerly of Banstead, Surrey, claimed diminished responsibility but was found guilty after the jury decided he pulled the antique weapon’s trigger deliberately to fire homemade bullets, and had not suffered an autistic meltdown.

Before his trial, two High Court judges ruled that De Zoysa was fit to enter pleas, despite his injuries.

One judge was told that the former University College London student was given a whiteboard and pen to communicate with medical experts due to speech difficulties.

He also had part of his skull removed during life-saving emergency medical treatment, and suffers weakness in his right arm and leg due to his injuries.

Imran Khan KC, representing De Zoysa, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, said in written submissions: “The judge fell into error in finding that the applicant was fit to plead (and) to be tried. He was not.”

Referring to the sentence, he said in court: “This case, looking at it in the round, is not one which by any stretch of the imagination falls anywhere near the evil end of the spectrum and therefore we say it should not have been a whole life order.”

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), opposed the appeal bids, but were not required to make submissions in court.

De Zoysa was arrested in London Road, Norbury, in the early hours of September 25 2020.

At his trial at Northampton Crown Court, jurors were shown CCTV footage of the former tax office data analyst, firing a legally bought revolver while handcuffed in a holding cell.

A bag containing seven bullets and cannabis were found during a search of De Zoysa’s clothing and body, but officers did not discover a .41-calibre revolver loaded with six rounds.

As he was being transported to a police station in Windmill Road, Croydon, in a police van, De Zoysa “retrieved” the weapon from a holster under his left arm while handcuffed.

CCTV evidence suggested he managed to get hold of the gun with his right hand around 16 minutes before the shooting and then took advantage of a vent at the back of his overcoat to hide the weapon until the incident.