Death of a woman at home - West Yorkshire Police, May 2020

On 2 May 2020, West Yorkshire Police (WYP) received a call reporting a verbal domestic argument between a man and a woman within their flat. Officers visited the flat and the argument appeared to have stopped before they arrived. Officers followed WYP positive action policy and separated the couple for the evening to prevent the situation from escalating.

On 23 May 2020, WYP received a call reporting concerns for the same woman as she had not been seen in a few days. WYP visited the flat and found the woman had died. Paramedics attended and confirmed her death.

Paramedics informed WYP that they had visited the same flat on 14 May 2020 to treat the woman who had sustained a black eye. WYP subsequently arrested the man for the alleged assault on the woman.

WYP launched an investigation into the woman’s death. Following police enquiries and medical reports, the woman is believed to have died following a medical episode.

WYP also referred the matter to us as is mandatory when someone dies after contact with the police and we started an independent investigation. We obtained an account from the officers who visited the flat on 2 May 2020. We also examined the officers’ body worn video (BWV) footage from 2 May 2020 and considered their decisions and actions alongside local and national policies and guidance.

We obtained WYP incident logs, audio recordings of calls to the police and statements from the paramedics who attended on 14 May 2020. We also obtained a copy of the pathologist’s report following the post-mortem examination of the woman.

No evidence was discovered that indicated that the police may have caused or contributed towards the woman’s death or that any person serving with the police may have committed a criminal offence or behaved in a manner justifying the bringing of disciplinary proceedings. All the officers were treated as witnesses and cooperated fully with this investigation.

At an inquest that concluded in December 2020, the coroner concluded the woman had died as a result of blood loss, having sustained a large laceration to her chin in an accidental fall whilst acutely intoxicated.