The family of a man who died in police custody wept tears of joy as they claimed that an inquest had given them “truth and justice”.

The jury at the hearing found that Michael Powell died from positional asphyxia caused by lying on his front in the back of a police van.

The jury also recorded that Mr Powell, aged 38, became more vulnerable to death for one or more possible reasons.

They included being hit by a moving police car, being sprayed with CS gas, being struck by a baton or being restrained on the ground while suffering a psychosis and extreme exertion.

It took the ten-man jury three days to reach an eight-to-two majority verdict. They could not agree on whether the police restraint was “reasonable in the circumstances”.

The father-of-three died on September 7, 2003, at the age of 38.

He was restrained by several officers after smashing windows at his mother’s home in Wilton Street, Lozells, and attacking a police car.

He was conscious at the time he was bundled into a police van and taken to the cells at Thornhill Road police station, but on arrival he had no pulse, had saliva foaming from his mouth and his body was limp. He was taken to the A&E department at City Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Speaking outside Sutton Coldfield Coroner’s Court, Mr Powell’s sister Sieta Lambrias, aged 38, said: “The way he was treated in the street, how he was restrained, how he was put in the van and how we never heard from him again was wrong.”

“We have won. We got what we came for – the truth and justice.”

Mrs Lambrias added that the family would continue to fight to secure police accountability and to stop further custody deaths occurring.

Solicitor Jane Deighton, representing the family, said: “Through six distressing years they (the Powell family) have struggled to expose the truth and to hold those responsible for Mikey’s death accountable.

“The way in which the police put Michael Powell in the van killed him. Clearly, matters can’t stop here.”

A spokesman for West Midlands Police said Mr Powell’s death had led to a rigorous re-examination of the way it carries out its duties and crucial lessons had been learned.

Assistant deputy coroner Stephen Campbell said that there was still a lack of health-based places of safety in the West Midlands for police to take a person suffering a mental health disorder and he would be writing letters of concern to the relevant organisations.