Sky News was forced to abandon its live reporting from the inquest into the deaths of five people killed in a wrong-way crash because a member of the public kept interrupting the broadcast with claims about the police.
Seven people, including two police officers, were killed in the crash on the A66 on Saturday, August 22, in the early hours of the morning when a Volkswagen Passat driving the wrong way collided with a police vehicle. Inquests into the deaths were opened at Teesside Coroner's Court on Thursday.
Live report disrupted
Sky's North of England correspondent Shingi Mararike was reporting live from the crash inquest. However, his segment was derailed when an angry man stepped into view and started shouting about the police, yelling: "The police killed them. Police killed them."
The police were also called "rats" by what appeared to be another individual off-screen. Mararike remained calm and immediately paused his report, telling viewers and the studio: "We're going to have to stop this broadcasting now as there's someone behind me. We'll try and continue now. I'm just holding off as we are being accosted by members of the public."
Attempting to pick up his report, he began: "So I'll work back into this now. We know that the inquests into five young men, the deaths of those five young men," but the individuals continued to interrupt the broadcast.
He did his best to continue the segment but the members of the public kept hassling him on camera. "I think we'll have to stop and perhaps you'll have to come back to us later. Apologies about that."
Studio response and inquest details
Back in the studio, the Sky News host responded: "Yeah, Shingi I totally understand and it's really difficult when you are trying to broadcast and someone is saying stuff and you don't know what the language is so I totally understand and we'll try and come back to you a little bit later on, hopefully when you're not being hassled live on-air, thank you Shingi Mararike."
Inquests have opened into the deaths of Cole Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, and 23-year-olds Michael Robert Cahill and Jacob Matusiak – who were in the Passat and pronounced dead at the scene. Cleveland Police have set up a GoFundMe page for the families of the two officers who died; PCs Matthew Blades and Tom Clough.
In short, consecutive hearings, coroner Paul Appleton said PC Blades was identified by his wife, and PC Clough by his partner. The provisional cause of death was said to be head and neck injuries for PC Blades, and neck injuries for PC Clough.
The force wrote on the page: "PC Matt Blades and PC Tom Clough were both dedicated and committed Police Officers who left their families and went to work to serve their community and protect the public. Tragedy struck these two brave Cleveland Police colleagues in the early hours of 22nd August 2026 - and they paid the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty."
Mr Appleton said that in the early hours of August 22 there was a collision on the A66 at South Bank between a police vehicle and a Volkswagen Passat. He told the hearing that "all occupants of both vehicles were sadly pronounced dead at the scene".
He said: "At this stage it is understood that there had been a police pursuit of the Volkswagen Passat. It entered the A66 carriageway against the flow of traffic, at which stage the pursuit was aborted. A short time after … the Volkswagen Passat collided with a police vehicle, which had not been directly involved in the prior pursuit."
