IOPC investigation finds missed opportunities over prior police contact with Birmingham murder victim

An investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found there were missed opportunities for West Midlands Police (WMP) to take positive action for Raneem Oudeh before she and her mother Khaola Saleem were murdered in Birmingham.

Following a referral from WMP, and a subsequent complaint, we looked at how police responded to ten domestic abuse incidents reported between July 2017 and 27 August 2018 when Ms Oudeh’s former partner Janbaz Tarin stabbed her and her mother to death in Solihull. Tarin was jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years.

A three-week inquest ended today (Friday 18 November) with the jury’s narrative conclusion finding that multiple police failures to investigate and safeguard had materially contributed to the deaths of Ms Oudeh and her mother. The jury also concluded that officers who dealt with some of the incidents had insufficient training and understanding of force domestic abuse policies.

During our investigation, completed in July 2020, we served nine officers with misconduct notices and found a case to answer for five at that level, all of whom received management action. Evidence we gathered indicated that appropriate intelligence checks were not made by some of the attending officers when completing domestic abuse risk assessments; a risk assessment was downgraded in one instance without the reviewing officer probing the rationale for the earlier decision; and criminal investigations into Mr Tarin were closed down without considering further lines of enquiry.

The other four officers were found to have no case to answer although it was agreed with the force that one of them should receive additional training.

We upheld a complaint from Ms Oudeh’s family that WMP failed to exercise powers available to them to protect and/or assist her in the months before her murder. Evidence we gathered showed that despite Mr Tarin being suspected of two assaults on Ms Oudeh, he was not arrested or requested to attend a voluntary interview. The evidence also indicated that WMP could have provided further support and advice to her around the available options, including consideration of a Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO) or Domestic Violence Protection Notice (DVPN).

IOPC Regional Director Derrick Campbell, said: “The circumstances of this case are shocking and profoundly disturbing, and I would like to express my sympathy to the family of Raneem and Khaola for their loss.

“Our investigation found that satisfactory intelligence checks were not carried out when responding to incidents involving Raneem and her ex-partner. It was our view that WMP dealt with each incident in isolation and did not consider the cumulative effect and potential increase in the frequency and/or level of violence.”

On the night they died, Ms Oudeh rang police four times fearing for her safety after reporting she and her mother had been assaulted by Mr Tarin at a shisha bar.

Mr Campbell added: “It was apparent there were police resourcing issues and a lack of clear communication about their response over the next few hours before the fatal attack took place outside Raneem’s mother’s home. Our review of the full history of incidents and police involvement with Raneem shows that there were missed opportunities to take action and affect the risk prior to her death.”

On conclusion of our investigation we made learning recommendations to WMP concerning domestic abuse risk assessments being completed without intelligence checks; and misunderstanding by officers around when such risk assessments would be reviewed by their Public Protection Unit (PPU). We also recommended the force should consider PPU oversight of all domestic abuse cases with repeat victims, and further training around the use of DVPOs and DVPNs. In its response WMP outlined measures that had been taken or were ongoing to address these issues.