Arsema Dawit
13 Oct 2014 · Coroner Andrew Harris · London (Inner South)
A similar concern from this report was raised again 1 time later. See the linked reports.
The coroner's concerns
1. premature classification of offence leading to misleading CRIS entry
“The senior reception officer prematurely classified the offence, failed to reclassify it when the full details were known at the end of her interviews and entered a misleading entry on the CRIS that the Inspector whom she had briefly asked a question, had been informed of the incident, which he had not, but others assumed he had been. He was clear that had he known the full account of the incident, he would have required further steps to be taken at the outset. Is the SRO appropriate to complete”
2. failure to record threat to kill as principal offence and inadequate documentation
“The court was told that most serious crime reported should be the principal offence, but the threat to kill was not entered as the principle offence, when the case was reviewed by senior supervising officers, nor was a linked crime report made. The entry of the second Inspector was insufficient to properly inform others of his decisions. Two inspectors were involved and that gave false reassurance to more junior officers, who then did not question the appropriateness of the principal offence,”
3. sub‑optimal supervision of action plans
“The action plans that were adopted appeared to have been supervised sub-optimally by Detective Sergeants. It is not clear whether these were individual weaknesses or reflect a wider weakness in the role of supervisors.”
4. gap in classification and remit leading to insufficient investigation
“According to the MPS Standard Operating Procedures at the time, the offence could not have been reported as domestic violence as those involved were not adult and was outside the remit of the child abuse investigation team. There appeared to be a gap, which might mean inappropriate or insufficient investigation could be carried out.”
5. reluctance to use interpreting service resulting in lack of mother interview
“There appeared to be some reluctance to use the interpreting service, so that the mother was never interviewed.”
Linked reports
Closely relatedConfidence 0.90 · high
This report
“According to the MPS Standard Operating Procedures at the time, the offence could not have been reported as domestic violence as those involved were not adult and was outside the remit of the child abuse investigation team.”
Later report
“That there may have been missed opportunities for the IOPC and Metropolitan Police Service from their investigations to identify that [the deceased] was a victim of domestic abuse and coercive control, which would have enabled her to be protected.”
Responses
2014-0442-Response-by-Metropolitan-Police.pdf ↗· Metropolitan Police Service
Stated action · 31 July 2008
“A decision was taken by Management Board in 2007 that the Station Reception Officer (SRO) role would cease to exist with effect from 31 July 2008.”