A former judge has said the family of a man who died in police custody would have “walked out” from the £50m public inquiry into his death if he had not held annual meetings with them.

Lord Bracadale held five private meetings with the family of Sheku Bayoh, who died after being restrained by police in Kirkcaldy in 2015.

But lawyers acting for the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), which represents rank and file officers, claim the meetings have “torpedoed the independence of the chair” and called for him to step down.

Lord Bracadale said Mr Bayoh’s family’s participation in the inquiry was of the greatest importance and the process would be “seriously undermined” without them.

The former judge has been leading the inquiry since 2020 and is holding a hearing in Edinburgh to allow core participants to make submissions on his conduct in relation to the family meetings.

After this he will make a ruling on his own position. The hearing is scheduled to last two days, with Lord Bracadale issuing his decision at a later date.

If he decides to stay in post, the police federation has said it will seek to challenge the decisions in Scotland’s civil courts via a process known as a judicial review.

The inquiry has so far cost £24.8m, with an additional £24.3m spent by Police Scotland, including £17.3m of legal costs.

In a statement published on the inquiry website, Lord Bracadale said that retaining the confidence of the family was in the public interest, which was why he decided to meet them on an annual basis.

He added: “I consider that, if I had not had meetings with them, there is a high probability that they would have stopped participating and would have walked out of the inquiry.”

He said the meetings were private but he did not consider them secret. On a number of occasions, the inquiry and the family had referred to them in public.

They did not discuss evidence during the meetings and if it came up, he would move on and change the subject.

Roddy Dunlop KC, dean of the Faculty of Advocates, is representing the police federation and two of the officers involved in the incident which ended with Mr Bayoh’s death.

He told the hearing: “These meetings were, in almost their entirety, completely inappropriate.

“They were doubtless well meaning, they were doubtless arranged with the best of intentions, but, with the greatest of respect, they were spectacularly ill-advised and have torpedoed the independence of the chair.”

Dan Byrne KC, representing three of the police officers taking part in the inquiry, added: “An opportunity to develop a personal rapport and relationship was given only to the family.

“An opportunity, which was taken, to advocate and persuade was given only to the family. As the officers explained to me yesterday, the chair has no idea who we are, we are just white officers.”

The SPF made its submission along with PCs Nicole Short and Craig Walker, two of the officers involved in the incident in 2015.

They said they had the “greatest respect” for Lord Bracadale and were not seeking to impugn his integrity.

They felt the meetings were “the result of a well intentioned desire to assist the family of Mr Bayoh in navigating the inquiry.”

The submission said the federation and two officers “have regrettably lost confidence in the chair”.

The SPF has said that none of the other core participants were made aware that Lord Bracadale was meeting the family and the details of what was said have not been disclosed.

A submission on behalf of Scotland’s solicitor general, Ruth Charteris KC, who is deputy head of the country’s prosecution body and a legal adviser to the Scottish government, concludes the “procedure followed by the inquiry was unfair”.

It added: “This submission has come to the view that the concerns about apparent bias, about the risk of the appearance of influence on the chair, and about unfairness require to be acknowledged as valid”.

Sheku Bayoh’s family arrived at the inquiry with their solicitor, Aamer Anwar.

A statement issued on behalf of the family said: “We are clear that not one party has come close to showing that the chair has broken any rules and acted with bias.

“The circumstances in which the chair met the family could not have been any less private – there were solicitors for the inquiry and family present, counsel for both and also on occasion administrative staff.”

Speaking outside the hearing, Mr Bayoh’s sister, Kadi Johnson, said: “My brother did not deserve to die. All we want now is justice. So now the world is watching, Scotland is listening and we, the family, are waiting for justice.”

The hearing is scheduled to last two days, with Lord Bracadale issuing his decision at a later date.

The inquiry has been examining what happened before and during the death of Sheku Bayou, who died in police custody. It has been looking at how the police dealt with the aftermath, the investigation into Mr Bayoh’s death and whether race was a factor.

Members of the public called the police after Mr Bayoh was spotted carrying a knife and behaving erratically in the streets of Kirkcaldy on 3 May 2015.

He was not carrying the knife when officers arrived at the scene but a violent confrontation followed, with up to six officers restraining the 31-year-old on the ground.

The father-of-two lost consciousness and later died in hospital.