Police management of threats reported and whether actions caused or contributed to a man’s death – Sussex Police, October 2020

On 26 October 2020, Sussex Police received a 999 call from a mother reporting that her fourteen-year-old daughter was missing and had made threats towards her. 
 

Police commenced a missing person investigation, and the fourteen-year-old teenager was located on the morning of 27 October and left with an adult who officers deemed to be appropriate.
 

Later that evening the police received another 999 call in which the mother reported the same daughter had stabbed her partner. Police attended on immediate response but the man was pronounced dead by paramedics shortly after their arrival at the scene.
 

We obtained telephone call recordings, witness statements from police officers, and reviewed police incident logs and referral documents for partner agencies.
 

Our investigation was finalised in November 2021. We waited for all associated proceedings to be complete before publishing our findings. 
 

During the investigation, there was no indication any police officer had behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or had committed a criminal offence.
 

The teenager received a custodial sentence at a hearing conducted in March 2022. She was jailed for five years, to serve another four years on licence. 
 

We carefully considered whether there were any learning opportunities arising from the investigation. We make learning recommendations to improve policing and public confidence in the police complaints system and prevent a recurrence of similar incidents. In this case, the investigation has not identified any learning.