BREAKING NEWS: Investigation reveals police officers refused to attend reports of stabbing
An Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation has found two Northamptonshire Police officers put others in danger by refusing to attend reports of a stabbing.
In the early hours of January 18, Louise Webster was stabbed to death at her home on Abbots Way in Roade. Martin Ashby was convicted of her murder at Northampton Crown Court on Friday, March 4.
Northamptonshire Police received an emergency call at 00.11am from Louise Webster’s home where screaming and shouting could be heard and two minutes later it was confirmed that someone had been stabbed.
The two PCs involved should have been working on an anti-prostitution operation in Northampton town centre, but at 00.12 and 00.15 the GPS device in one of their radios placed them in the immediate vicinity of the stabbing incident.
At 00.18 the control room, which had information teenagers were at the scene, requested the officers attend the incident as they were closest. However, the officer who answered the request refused to do so saying they were on an operation and their Inspector would not want them to leave their assigned duties.
As a consequence of their refusal an officer patrolling on his own in the Towcester area responded at 00.20 and arrived at 00.29. Only then could the paramedic, who had to wait near the scene for five minutes for police to arrive, go into the house and treat Louise. It also meant the officer had to approach the house and disarm a potentially dangerous man on his own.
The investigation established that the officers were not prohibited by the Inspector from responding to emergency calls, which they would have been aware of from operational briefings they attended.
It was also revealed that the officers’ note books showed they had not dealt with any prostitution related crime or any other policing incidents during their six hours of duty.
The officers claimed they had followed a suspicious vehicle from Northampton to Roade, but could not get the vehicle’s registration. No independent evidence could be found to prove or disprove this.
The independent investigation also spoke to medical experts who said that such were the extent of the injuries Louise Webster suffered she would have died even if the two officers had attended.
It is not known if they would have arrived before Louise Webster died but they would have been able to detain Martin Ashby and have assisted those who were waiting for the emergency services to arrive and who remained in potential jeopardy.
The IPCC investigation found that both officers had cases to answer for gross misconduct. These were subsequently proven at a full powers misconduct hearing, who also heard that on the night before Louise’s murder one of the officers had been on the same anti-prostitution operation, but travelled to Roade to look for houses for sale. Both officers received final written warnings.
IPCC Commissioner Amerdeep Somal said: “The police work to protect the public and preserve life. I find it deeply disturbing that these two officers who were in the immediate vicinity, chose to ignore these basic but fundamental principles.
“It is unacceptable that one of them chose to go on a personal errand only the night before whilst being paid public money to fulfil his role as a police officer.
“It makes it all the more incredulous that they chose not to respond to an emergency call because the operation they were assigned to was seemingly so important that they would not have been released from it by their senior officer.
“The lamentable reasons they gave for not responding to the incident did not withstand scrutiny and contrasted sharply with the actions of their colleague.
“Unlike them, despite being further from the incident, he put himself in danger by responding to a dangerous situation on his own. His actions are to be commended.”
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Comments
There are 33 comments to this article
Page 1 of 3
Just Me
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 10:57 PMI had to call Northampton police for a proper 999 emergency once, they were at the house in the time it took me to put the phone down and go up to the car park to meet them, I was very impressed with their response. This is a bad story, a real bad story. I watched it on the news then came in to the office and my husband called me over to read it, it's shocked us both - but we have to try to remember that for every rubbish worker any company has, there will be 10 or more good workers. Let's try not to get involved saying "All" Northampton policemen, and say "These two" - to keep it in perspective and to keep it fair. Just sayin....
ZippyBoy
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 10:11 PM@Stinky Pete - I took the trouble to google the IPCC web site and read their official report, not wanting to take _any_ news report at face value. Having watched the local tv news broadcasts this evening, I got the impression that neither the IPCC rep, nor the Chief Super, were making much effort to defend the 2 who were disciplined. If there is some "other side" to be put, I'm not sure who'll be doing it for them ...
willi eckaslyke
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 10:08 PMStinky & treacle.....the response is to the published findings of an Independant Police Complaints Commission investigation - which happens to have made all the national news bulletins.....are you two suggesting the Commission is keeping something back?....if you know something else, then do share it.
andy4u91p
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 09:54 PMnot saying theres no good cops in northants but over last 6 months theres been bad report after report of them not doing their job properly the sex offender police officer who was allowed to stay on at work ,the football hooligans who did criminal damage to a local pub were allowed to leave area with no arrests. the 1s who using the the computers to check out innocent people for their own personnal use ,i could go on, and the increasing complaints about northants police officers. northants police havent got the worse rating in uk for nothing .
Links
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 09:49 PMYes, bless them, they are probably just misunderstood. What do we know after all? The IPCC on the other hand are presumably in full possession of the facts and they were pretty damning in their comments...
Treacle Tart
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 09:36 PM@Stinky Pete Too true, if only people knew the full story every time they comment then maybe their comments would be different.
stinky pete
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 09:27 PMI'm disgusted that people feel free to comment on articles that they know absolutely nothing about other that part of a story published in a news paper! If ALL the facts were published and an even representation given then the bigger picture would be there for all to see and judge.
madman2401
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 08:04 PMI was under the impression that Northants Police need to cut costs? Surely the best way to start saving money is to sack these 2 police officers? If that's the sort of attitude that officers have when they receive a call I pray to god that I never need to call them out!!!
seedee
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 07:31 PMI have had to wait for the police to arrive in a past life.... I still have headaches from banging my head on brick walls! A lot of the police are great, but like the rest of society, bad apples pop up.
Reginald Molehusband
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 07:23 PMWhat an absolute disgrace. That these two officers received "final written warnings" suggests that they had other warnings on file. Would the Chief Constable care to comment? If Louise Webster's family are thinking of pursuing civil proceedings against the constabulary and the officers concerned for an offence such as Corporate Manslaughter (and I quote "The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is a landmark in law. For the first time, companies and organisations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care") then I would personally and willingly help fund it. This newspaper has my contact details if they are.
Links
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 06:52 PMThis is appalling. It's not often I'm shocked by news stories but this one takes the biscuit. To be honest though I'm less shocked by the sheer jobsworth bloody-mindedness this pair displayed than I am by the fact they haven't been fired. Final written warning?!? Someone died and a proper policeman was endangered. What exactly would they have to do to get fired?
Common sense
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 06:49 PMWe will never hear the full story. I've only called upon Police hep once in Northamptonshire and to be honest they were great.
CptBradlaugh
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 06:38 PMThere are people good at their job and there are people are bad at their jobs. The police are no different. Of course the actions of a policeman can have more dramatic consequences that the actions of, say a shop assistant. But there are plenty of brave cops in NP as this story shows.
willi eckaslyke
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 05:15 PMTouch and go which is the lower... police morale, or public confidence...a real charter for the criminals.
andy4u91p
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 04:34 PMdoesnt come to much of a surprise, over the last 6 months northants police have shown they cant be relied on,when the crunch comes to solving real crime or persuing victimless crimes there only be 1 out come.
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