TWO police officers based at Hawick in the Borders have been suspended from duty in connection with an alleged incident in which a man was taken into custody and was later found dead in his cell.
Senior officers there, along with the internal investigation branch of Lothian and Borders police at Fettes HQ in Edinburgh, began an inquiry at the weekend, while an official spokesman confirmed that a report is being submitted to the procurator-fiscal.
The dead man was named as Mr Matthew Cowan, 53, of O'Connell Street, Hawick, who is understood to have been taken into custody following an alleged disturbance in the town on Friday morning.
Yesterday, a police spokesman said the suspension of the two officers was in connection with an alleged incident before he arrived at the police station.
Mr Cowan died less than two hours after being arrested. He was arrested at 11.20am and just before 1pm he was found collapsed in his cell. A doctor was called and pronounced him dead.
Unemployed Mr Cowan was believed to have been separated. A neighbour said he had been living in O'Connell Street for about five months. Mr Cowan is believed to have come from the West of Scotland originally.
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