Man injured after contacting the police - Cheshire Constabulary, March 2018

At 8.14pm on 24 March 2018 Cheshire Constabulary received a call from a man, who did not give his name, saying he had split from his partner the night before and was going to an address to collect his belonging. The caller said that “there would be murder” when he got there, but did not answer questions asked by the call handler in order to obtain more detail about the risk.

The incident was rated as requiring a response as soon as possible, and within 60 minutes. The call handler classified the incident as needing police attendance in order to prevent a potential breach of the peace. Police checked the mobile number used by the man and other details provided. At 8.26pm an entry on the incident log detailed that those checks had identified an address, and that the man who had called could be a perpetrator of domestic violence. The call handler tried to call the man back at 8.16pm and 8.29pm, but the call went to voicemail on both occasions.

No patrol was assigned or deployed to the incident. The incident was not identified as a domestic incident.

Approximately 30 minutes after the initial call, Cheshire Constabulary received a call from the ambulance service reporting that a man had been assaulted at the same address. The man, who sustained serious injuries, was identified as the same man who had called the police initially.

Our investigators reviewed the call made by the man and the incident log that had been created. We interviewed the call handler as a witness.

The investigation found no evidence that would indicate that Cheshire Constabulary caused or contributed to the man’s injuries.

We found no indication that any person serving with the police may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings.