Louis De Zoysa shot dead Met Police officer at police station as drugs arrest was processed
By Martin Evans, CRIME EDITOR23 June 2023 • 2:56pm
A cannabis addict who bought an antique revolver on the internet and then manufactured his own bullets during lockdown, has been found guilty of murdering Sergeant Matt Ratana in a south London custody centre.
Louis De Zoysa shot dead the 54-year-old Metropolitan Police officer in September 2020 as he was being processed at Croydon police station following his arrest for carrying drugs and ammunition.
Lawyers for the 25-year-old had argued he did not intend to kill the New Zealand born officer and had been in the grip of an “autistic meltdown” when the gun went off.
But jurors at Northampton Crown Court rejected his plea of diminished responsibility and convicted him of murder.
Jurors deliberated for just over five hours over two days before unanimously convicting Louis De Zoysa, who listened to the verdict sitting in a wheelchair in the secure glass-fronted dock.
De Zoysa nodded twice as the judge confirmed with him that he had heard the verdict being announced by the jury foreman.
Sgt Ratana’s partner, Su Bushby, and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley were among those in the public gallery as the verdict was returned.
The court had heard how De Zoysa, who had Asperger’s Syndrome, was obsessed with weapons and had bought an antique revolver in an internet auction during lockdown.
He had then manufactured his own bullets to fit the gun in a rented workshop on farmland in Banstead, Surrey.
Police officers stopped De Zoysa on the night of 24 September 2020 as he walked along a street in south London.
After being searched officers found cannabis and a bag containing a number of bullets, but they did not find the revolver which was hidden in a holster beneath his armpit.
While being taken to the police station in a van, De Zoysa managed to remove the gun, hiding under his coat and when he was approached by Sgt Ratana in the custody centre opened fire, fatally wounding him.
The jury was told that four shots were fired in total, the first one hit the officer in the chest, the second one hit him in the leg, the third hit the wall of the cell and the fourth “shot caused severe and life-threatening injury to Louis De Zoysa”.
Despite the efforts of his colleagues and paramedics, Sgt Ratana was declared dead a short time later.
Mr De Zoysa was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, and although he survived, suffered brain damage as a result of the gunshot wound.
