recounting the events in Parliament, Salt most likely died after a bout of heavy drinking while on duty led to his collapse. Mullin states that Berry made four statements, which gradually increased the number and involvement of one to three black men in the incident, one of whom was said to have dreadlocks. At a press conference the day after the death, Assistant Chief Constable Meffen "asserted that PC Salt had broken cover to check a suspect car and was set upon by a person or persons with martial arts skills, dragged into the alley and beaten to death" although these details did not appear in any of the statements made by PC Mark Berry. Gibbs, Samuels and Francis were arrested and interviewed. None had dreadlocks. Mullin stated: "Mr. Gibbs … describes how, once he had agreed to admit the thefts, he was carefully rehearsed in what he was to say once the recorder was switched on: 'They were saying you can either do it peacefully or we can do it rough. I've been beaten up before in police stations and its not very nice. I wasn't prepared to go through all that again.' Eventually, he agreed to admit to stealing PC Salt's wallet and a martial arts weapon called a cubiton that Salt was thought to be carrying." According to Mullin, Samuels confessed to theft after being threatened with being charged with murder and Francis was told that his family would be set up on drugs charges if he did not confess to theft, while another witness was told to say she had witnessed Francis hitting Salt. After securing their confessions to theft, all three men were charged with murder. However, the case against the three quickly unravelled. A taxi driver had witnessed Salt and Berry's drinking bout. Salt's wife said that she had found the cubiton that two of the suspects had confessed to stealing, and stated that Salt had taken no more than £5 that night, rather than the £30 said to have been stolen. The pathologist showed that although Salt had suffered a blow to the neck, he could not have then walked 120 feet from the party to the place where he died. Mullin related that pathologist stated that "most likely explanation for his death was that, in his drunken state, Mr. Salt had fallen and hit his head on the bucket of a JCB