Man’s contact with police before his death - West Yorkshire Police, May 2018

On 13 January 2018, a man reported a cyber hate crime to West Yorkshire Police (WYP). Police officers identified and interviewed a suspect, who confessed to the offence. An officer informed the man about the interview with the suspect but was unable to make further contact with him to notify him of the progress of the investigation. On 19 May 2018, the victim of the alleged hate crime was found dead at his home. Consequently, WYP finalised the hate crime and took no further action.

Our investigators obtained statements from the man’s partner, the officer in charge of the WYP investigation, their supervisor and a WYP Hate Crime Co-ordinator. Investigators reviewed these in the context of local and national policies, procedures and guidance. All WYP officers and staff co-operated with this investigation.

The investigation found that the WYP officers involved in this incident acted in accordance with the relevant policies and procedures in place. They responded to the man’s report of a hate crime in accordance with the process in place; they took a statement within the prescribed period of time, interviewed a suspect and provided follow up support. While the man did not receive regular updates as to the progress of his complaint, the officer concerned did make attempts to update him.

The investigation found there was a delay in the charging decision, which may have been due to a miscommunication between two officers. Despite some delays in progressing the charging decision with the Crown Prosecution Service, the investigation found no evidence to suggest that the officers could have reasonably foreseen that this might have placed the man at risk of self-harm, or that this delay had any impact on his subsequent death.

Our investigation found no evidence to indicate that any WYP officer or member of staff may have acted in a manner which would justify disciplinary action. We completed our investigation in May 2019.

Following their review of our report, WYP decided that two officers should receive words of advice.

Since the man’s death, WYP has introduced changes in the way the force communicates with victims.

At the man’s inquest in summer 2019, the coroner recorded a verdict of suicide.