TWO POLICE officers “colluded” their accounts of what occurred following the death of Dalian Atkinson, a court has heard. PC Benjamin Monk is on trial charged with the murder of former Aston Villa player.

Prosecutors have argued that he and PC Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith, 31, who is charged with assault, both used excessive force during the incident. They both denied the charges against them.

The jury heard that Mr Atkinson was tasered, kicked and hit with a baton when police were called to his father’s home in Meadow Close, Telford in 2016.

Ernest Atkinson recalled that his son was “not in his right mind” and recounted that he had said: “I’m alive, I’m the Messiah, and I’ve come to kill you.”

Dalian Atkinson was referring to himself as a “born-again Christian,” and Ernest Atkinson said his son was “angry”. Dalian grabbed his father by the throat and pushed him down into a chair and demanded to know “how much they’d paid him in their part to kill him,” the jury heard.

Police were called to the address by a neighbour at around 1:30am and PC Monk is accused of allegedly tasering Atkinson for 33 seconds – six times longer than the standard practice. He later kicked him in the head at least twice.

Birmingham Crown Court heard prosecutors claim that the similarity of the officers’ accounts was “indicative” they had discussed how “to account for their unlawful attack on an unarmed man.”

PC Monk’s colleague and girlfriend at the time, PC Bettley-Smith is accused of assaulting Mr Atkinson by hitting him with her baton, and allegedly colluding with her then boyfriend to lie about the kicks to the head which left the imprint of bootlaces.

Mr Atkinson, 48, ripped out his dialysis line before being confronted by officers and later died in the early hours of 15 August 2016 from cardio-respiratory arrest.

His partner, Karen Wright, recalled that earlier that night he had been acting out of character and borrowed her car to drive to his father’s house. This came after weeks where he was “quite convinced that he was going to be killed” either by the NHS or police, she said and was due to check into hospital the next day for treatment.

The medical evidence in this case was descried as “multi factorial” and possibly “the most medically complex forensic pathology case” the pathologist had dealt with.

Concluding her opening speech, Ms Healy – pathologist who has recorded a narrative cause of death – said the jury would have to consider whether PC Monk had intended to cause serious injury.

“The prosecution say that once that last Taser deployment had been totally effective, causing Dalian Atkinson to fall to the ground as a result of neuromuscular incapacitation… the officers were no longer acting in self-defence,” she said.

“Rather they acted in anger as a result of the fear that Dalian Atkinson had just put them through.”