Joy Angelia Gardner (née Burke, 29 May 1953 – 1 August 1993) was a 40-year-old Jamaican mature student living in London, England, United Kingdom. Gardner died after being detained during a police immigration raid on her home in Crouch End, when she was restrained with handcuffs and leather straps and gagged with a 13-foot length of adhesive tape wrapped around her head. Unable to breathe, she collapsed and suffered brain damage due to asphyxia. She was placed on life support but died following a cardiac arrest four days later. In 1995, three of the police officers involved stood trial for Gardner's manslaughter, but were acquitted. The case became a cause célèbre for civil rights and justice campaigners, and for the first time brought wide public attention to what the Modern Law Review called "the inhumanity of the methods used routinely in the execution of deportation orders". Despite continuing pressure by campaigners, no coroner's inquest or public inquiry into the circumstances of Gardner's death has been held. Background Joy Gardner Joy Gardner was born Joy Burke in Long Bay Beach, Jamaica, in May 1953. Her mother, Myrna Simpson, emigrated to the United Kingdom from Jamaica – then still a British colony – in 1961, with the intention of sending for her child once she had achieved some financial stability, a common and accepted practice at the time. Simpson subsequently became a British citizen. Prior to 1981, Gardner would have had the right to British citizenship through her mother, but changes to immigration legislation in the British Nationality Act 1981 meant this was no longer possible. As well as her mother, Gardner's half-brother, three uncles and two aunts were also living in England at the time. Gardner first travelled to England in 1987, leaving a daughter behind in Jamaica. She entered the country legally using a six-month visitor's visa, but overstayed when the visa elapsed. She was pregnant at the time of her arrival, and subsequently gave birth to a son. In September 1990 she married Briton John Gardner, who applied to the Home Office for his new wife to be granted permanent residence. Five weeks later they separated and he withdrew the request. In October 1990, Gardner was advised by police and the Home Office that she should leave the country voluntarily or risk deportation. In December 1990 she applied for a judicial review of her case which was turned down