AN internal investigation was under way yesterday after a teenager died in police custody.
Seventeen-year-old Martin Dakers, of Pendle Close, Lambton Village, Washington, Wearside, was arrested on Friday night and taken to Washington police station.
An officer checked the cell some time later and found that the youth had collapsed.
A spokeswoman for Northumbria Police said: "Just after 9pm on Friday, a 17-year-old was arrested in Lambton Village on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly.
"While in custody at Washington police station he was found collapsed. An ambulance was called immediately and the teenager was taken to Sunderland General Hospital, where he died shortly after midnight."
A Home Office pathologist has carried out a post-mortem examination and the coroner has been informed.
Officers from Northumbria Police's professional standards department is heading an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death. The inquiry will be supervised by officers from the Police Complaints Authority.
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