IPCC whitewash of Kent DV murder
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) carried out an investigation into Kent Police’s contact with Anne-Marie Birch before her death following a number of reports of domestic abuse/stalking and breaches of a non molestation order.
The body of Mrs Birch, 47, was discovered in Whiteness Road, Broadstairs, on Thursday, 7 November after Kent Police officers were called to the area.
An independent investigation began after it became apparent Kent Police had been in contact with Mrs Birch on several occasions in connection with domestic related issues.
The investigation was looking at potential gross misconduct matters and IPCC investigators had served discipline notices on a control room team leader, supervisor and two call handlers who dealt with phone calls from Mrs Birch.
IPCC Commissioner Mary Cunneen said at the time:
“My thoughts and sympathies are with Mrs Birch’s family at what must be a desperately sad and difficult time for them. IPCC investigators have made contact with Mrs Birch’s family and I have offered to meet with them to answer any questions they have. Our investigation is at an early stage but I would like to assure Mrs Birch’s family we are carrying out a robust and independent investigation into Kent Police’s contact with Anne-Marie."
On 7 April 2016 the IPCC published their final report into Kent Police actions.
The following is a brief summary published by the IPCC and the complete report can be viewed on the IPCC's website.
Anne-Marie Birch murder: IPCC publishes report into Kent Police actions
Apr 7, 2016
A woman who was killed by her estranged husband had raised concerns about his behaviour to Kent Police on nine separate occasions in the months leading up to her death, an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report has found.
Anne-Marie Birch, 47, was strangled in a field near her home in Ramsgate in November 2013. Anne-Marie’s husband Lee Birch, 55, admitted her manslaughter and was jailed for life in April 2014.
The IPCC found several of Anne-Marie’s calls to police could have been better handled by the force, with problems including incorrect logging of calls and a lack of awareness among some call centre staff about non-molestation orders (NMOs).
The report found some officers who spoke with Anne-Marie in person prior to the point when she obtained an NMO may have failed to identify or investigate potential offences committed by Lee Birch including harassment and making threats to kill.
The IPCC found that shortly after the NMO had been taken out, officers told Anne-Marie they could not take action against Lee Birch until the order appeared on their police systems. This was despite the fact officers had been shown a threatening note Lee Birch had written on the order itself. He then posted the note through Anne-Marie's door.
The report found these failings by officers may have warranted the bringing of Unsatisfactory Performance Procedures against them.
Kent Police has since taken steps to address issues through formal learning for the officers concerned.
IPCC Commissioner Mary Cunneen said:
"Ultimately it is Lee Birch who takes full responsibility for the campaign of harassment against Anne-Marie which culminated in her tragic death.
“Our investigation found that Kent Police could have performed better when Anne-Marie called them for help and we have made 12 recommendations to the force highlighting important areas where its practices can be improved.
“We have also agreed with Kent Police that eight individual officers and three call centre workers should receive specific learning points so the mistakes made in this case are not repeated in the future.”
The IPCC investigation examined the contact between Anne-Marie and Kent Police in the lead up to her death, including six separate occasions in September 2013 when she had called police to raise concerns about her husband’s behaviour.
Anne-Marie called police at 8.32am on the day she was killed - November 7 - to report her husband had been hiding in her back garden. The IPCC found the call had been answered by a trainee call handler and had not been properly logged. During the investigation, four members of Kent Police staff - a control room team leader, a supervisor and two call handlers - were interviewed under notice.
Kent Police has accepted all 12 learning recommendations made by the IPCC investigators. These included:
• Improving call centre staff awareness of non-molestation orders
• Improving the way systems log multiple calls from the same person/address
• Improving how calls and operational information are recorded
• Ensuring front line staff are familiar with policies on dealing with harassment and threats to kill
DV WATCH COMMENTS
We have a number of concerns regarding the approach to this case and the investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
We are also concerned that the National Centre for Domestic Violence (NCDV) have immediately following the publication of the report attempted to use the opportunity to promote their services.
We believe that the service provided by the NCDV can increase the risk to victims and that this murder would not have been prevented by using their service.
IPCC INVESTIGATION
Why do we think the investigation was a whitewash?
We don't intend to go through the complete report at this stage but will highlight some of the main concerns:
1. Whilst the IPCC Commissioner stated initially that they were looking at Gross Misconduct offences, only 4 civilian call handlers were issued with discipline notices and none appear to have been served on any police officers.
2. At a later stage it appears that 8 police officers had dealings with the victim and that there were serious failings. None appear to have received any form of discipline or received any discipline notices.
The IPCC state “We have also agreed with Kent Police that eight individual officers and three call centre workers should receive specific learning points so the mistakes made in this case are not repeated in the future.”
3. This is a common mantra with regards to organisational learning which is repeated time after time and lessons are not learnt.
4. There is no mention anywhere in the report of a document Protocol for Process Servers: non - molestation orders
5. Whilst there is mention of various internal systems, there is no mention of the Police National Computer (PNC). All non molestation orders provided to the police are placed on this National system so that any police officer when carrying out a check is aware of the order and of the conditions of the non molestation order.
6. There is no mention of whether a statement was provided or not from the process server to prove that the non molestation order was served on the defendant or how the non molestation order was served on the police once it had been served. The report refers to a bailiff, it is not clear whether this refers to a process server or a bailiff acting in the capacity of a process sever.
7. There is no clear information as to why the defendant was not kept in custody having been arrested. He was bailed by police despite having breached the non molestation order on numerous occasions.
8. Whilst there appears to be an attempt to confuse the reader with what information was available to call handlers with limited experience of non molestation orders, there are police supervisors in the control room and police officers and custody sergeants in addition to their knowledge of criminal law have ample guidance and knowledge as to how cases of domestic abuse should be dealt with.
9. There is no mention of a Domestic Abuse officer being involved in this case at all.
10. The DASH risk assessment despite being carried out on numerous occasions was clearly ineffective in this case. No specific recommendations appear to have been made in this regard.
11. It is perhaps relevant to highlight the response from Kent police federation concerning criticism relating to how domestic abuse is dealt with in their force:
Ian Pointon, chairman of Kent Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, hit back at the critism
He said: “Whilst I broadly welcome the HMIC recommendations, especially for better training, it would be easy to jump to the conclusion that victims of domestic abuse in Kent are being routinely failed by Kent Police. “I simply do not recognise that.
“We should not forget the police response to domestic abuse has improved greatly over the last 25 to 30 years with officers taking positive action to arrest offenders.
“This is a long way from when I joined; then the accepted, yet unacceptable, practice was don’t get involved in domestics.
Experience tells me we do take domestic abuse very seriously, but where there is room for improvement I am positive that will be done. I know that we won’t get it right all of the time, we are after all only human, but let’s keep those occasions in perspective.”
Kent Police has been told its handling of domestic abuse cases is “not good enough and needs to be improved”, according to a government report. However, the report, issued by the HM Inspectorate of Constabularly (HMIC), found that responding to and preventing incidents of domestic abuse is a priority for the force and there are “pockets” of good practice. But it says there are “some areas which require improvement in order to provide a consistent quality of service and minimise the risks to victims”.
12. The police culture unfortunately does not respond well to criticism and it is virtually impossible for the police to say sorry. We would dispute some of the comments of the police federation, there is still a culture of "It's just a domestic", in the murder case there were many missed chances where positive arrest policies do not appear to have been followed.
13. This investigation was a whitewash, from an initial investion into Gross misconduct where staff could be dismissed, the IPCC did not find that there was even a case for misconduct.
14. This is not plausible, it is our view that there was a reluctance to investigate this case properly which would have affected the reputation of the force and resulted in police officers and supervisers being disciplined which; would have also assisted family members in seeking compensation.
15. We do not agree with the IPCC Commissioner's comment
"Ultimately it is Lee Birch who takes full responsibility for the campaign of harassment against Anne-Marie which culminated in her tragic death."
The police also played a large part in this case by failing to protect the victim which they could have done had they simply done their job.
