Killer of Sergeant Matt Ratana handed life sentence for shooting while under arrest

New Zealand-born Sgt Ratana died in hospital from his injuries in September 2020.

At Northampton Crown Court on Thursday, Justice Johnson dismissed De Zoysa’s diminished responsibility claim to condemn the defendant to die in prison.

Such an exceptional sentence is reserved for the most serious crimes including the murder of an on duty police officer.

When De Zoysa was first detained in the street, Metropolitan Police officers found cannabis and ammunition but failed to notice the loaded gun tucked under his arm.

The judge said: “You acted in cold blood. Your act was controlled, it was deliberate.

“You intended to kill Sgt Ratana, you deliberately aimed the gun at his chest at near point-blank range.

“Even as he fell, you aimed and fired a second shot at him.”

The judge noted that De Zoysa had lied to officers during his original arrest, telling them the bullets found were fakes and insisting he did not have anything on him that could cause harm.

On Sgt Ratana, the judge was full of praise: “He devoted his life to public service, he put himself in the way of danger to protect the public and to protect and safeguard those who came into custody.”

The judge said that Sgt Ratana’s family was “rightly immensely proud”.

De Zoysa had purchased the weapon online, legally due to its antique status, and modified it with homemade bullets.

Fighting the murder charge at trial, De Zoysa claimed that the shooting was not deliberate and instead the result of an “autistic breakdown.”

Convicted by a jury, Justice Johnson then summed up: "Autism is not to blame, you are to blame for that."

Sgt Ratana’s partner, Su Bushby, delivered an emotional impact statement in court, retracing the mental anguish she experienced from being told her partner had been shot dead

She said: “I remember falling to the floor, screaming and crying uncontrollably.”

Bushby recounted being unable to say goodbye “because of the horrific circumstances surrounding his death – I kept kissing his forehead, tears streaming down my face, and telling him to wake up.

“I could now see for myself this was true, my pain was indescribable, seeing Matt was dead and he had been killed.”

On seeing De Zoysa for the first time in November last year, Bushby said: “It was extremely difficult to face him.

“I remember thinking how unfair it was – here was the man who had ended Matt’s life. The man who shot him gets to remain on this earth and Matt doesn’t.”

She added: “At this moment, the nightmare continues. At this moment in time, I can’t forgive him for what he has done – the person who shot Matt and ripped my life apart.”

A HMRC data analyst who graduated from UCL with a degree in engineering, De Zoysa had become obsessed with guns prior to the murder.

De Zoysa fired four shots, two of which struck Sgt Ratana while one hit a wall and the fourth was aimed into his own neck.

As a result of the injury, De Zoysa had a stroke which caused brain damage.

Coupled with the individual’s autism, this led to the court case being moved from the Old Bailey to Northampton to be closer to De Zoysa’s secure hospital, as well as the defendant resorting to using a whiteboard and marker pen to communicate.

Sgt Ratana was pronounced dead at St George’s Hospital in London.

A memorial for the police officer was held at a chapel in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, in November 2020, with the event live-streamed around the world so well-wishers in New Zealand and the UK could join amid coronavirus restrictions.

Loved ones and police colleagues paid tribute to Sgt Ratana as a man with a “lion’s heart” during the funeral service.