Investigation into a serious injury afflicted by a man on police bail - Essex Police, April 2022

Essex Police · Ref: 2022/168044

Recommendation date: 7 June 2023

Response due: 2 August 2023

Published: 12 April 2023

Death and serious injury

In April 2022, we began an independent investigation into Essex Police’s contact with a woman who sustained serious injuries and a man who was on police bail at the time of the incident. The man was subsequently convicted for attempted murder. This came to our attention as a death or serious injury referral, although following a conduct assessment for one of the officers involved, the investigation became a conduct matter. We specifically investigated:• the actions and decision making of Essex Police officers and staff in relation to the handling of concerns the man in March 2022, including call handling, risk assessments, safeguarding and police response• the actions and decision making of police officers and staff regarding the decisions to further bail him on 1 April 2022. During our investigation, we obtained witness statements from numerous police officers and interviewed one officer under a misconduct caution. We interviewed the victim, reviewed …

View on IOPC website

Recommendations (5)

Recommendation 1 Accepted

Recommendation

The IOPC recommends that Essex Police should ensure that where there are multiple investigations relating to the same suspect/ victim, methods of communication between teams are reviewed, and guidance developed, to include supervisors from each team having contact and recording … Read more

Force Response

Recommendation accepted: Following this review and changes to the Home Office Counting rules, a new Standard Operating Procedure has been implemented between Domestic Abuse Investigation Teams (DAIT) and Public Protection Investigation Unit (PPIU) dealing with RASSO matters. (Attached below) PDF: … Read more

Recommendation 2 Accepted

Recommendation

The IOPC recommends that Essex Police takes steps to ensure that officers and staff have accurate and up-to-date knowledge in relation to domestic abuse and breaches of bail and breaches of civil orders. This should include consideration of issuing communications … Read more

Force Response

Recommendation accepted: Essex Police have annual Continuous Professional Development (CPD) days for Domestic Abuse that is delivered to all Local Policing Teams as a part of ‘flex training’. The DA Flex training in 2023 runs between August-October, covering over 1,000 … Read more

Recommendation 3 Not Accepted

Recommendation

The IOPC recommends that Essex Police should revise its custody procedures in order to ensure that when authorising bail the custody sergeant should upload the advice given to them by the relevant detective sergeant, or any advice given by officers … Read more

Force Response

Recommendation not accepted: Essex Police would ask that this recommendation is not implemented in its current form. All of the material will be already held on the ATHENA Investigation and Case records. As such it is not understood why this … Read more

Recommendation 4 Accepted

Recommendation

The IOPC recommends that Essex Police should revise their guidance to include that when decisions are being made in relation to bail, investigating officers or their sergeants should record interim safeguarding plans onto the Athena record whilst awaiting DV5 safeguarding … Read moreThe IOPC recommends that Essex Police should revise their guidance to include that when decisions are being made in relation to bail, investigating officers or their sergeants should record interim safeguarding plans onto the Athena record whilst awaiting DV5 safeguarding planning by the Central Referral Unit (CRU). This follows an investigation whereby the detective sergeant of the Domestic Abuse Investigation Team (DAIT) did not record safeguarding onto the Athena case management record following the release on pre-charge bail at 10pm of a suspect for a range of offences against his ex-partner. During the investigation the DAIT sergeant stated she believed that she had completed safeguarding activity by countersigning the domestic abuse risk form as high, therefore triggering a referral to the Central Referral Unit. However, CRU officers are not available on a 24 hour basis and therefore the referral was not picked up until the next morning. A safeguarding plan (a DV5) was then completed on the victim. Approximately 26 hours after the suspect was released on pre-charge bail he committed a serious assault on his ex-partner, which resulted in him being convicted for Attempted Murder. Whilst the safeguarding plan completed by the CRU was in place at this time, the investigation found that there had been a gap between when the suspect was released and when the plan was completed by the CRU of over 12 hours which was concerning given that the victim had been assessed as high risk and had two young children. Essex procedures states that any decision to bail or release a suspect under investigation will require a review of the safeguarding plan that is in place. It stipulates that in high risk cases CRU, where available, will be updated prior to release of a suspect, to enable this to be done, but if there is no CRU Officer available the detective sergeant will review the safeguarding prior to the release of the suspect. However, it does not state how this should be completed or recorded. Show less

Force Response

Recommendation accepted: Following the introduction of DASH to DARA, the CRU function in Essex ceased and a Domestic Abuse Review Team (DART) were introduced. The safeguarding functions moved to a collaborative effort between IDVA services and the Investigating Officer, meaning … Read more

Recommendation 5 Not Accepted

Recommendation

The IOPC recommends that Essex Police should monitor the compliance of officers activating their body-worn cameras when attending domestic abuse incidents, and consider methods to raise awareness of this policy with officers. This follows an IOPC investigation whereby it was … Read more

Force Response

Recommendation not accepted: Essex Police would ask for this recommendation not to be implemented, based on the following - Essex Police has clear policies in place around use of Body Worn Video at incidents of Domestic abuse, and the communications … Read more