Police contact before woman sustained serious injury in domestic incident - Staffordshire Police, July 2022

In July 2022, Staffordshire Police received a telephone call from a male reporting that a person known to him had rung him stating that he had “done something stupid”.  The caller believed that his associate may have caused harm to his partner.  The caller also had concerns because a child also resided at the address.

The caller had also informed the police that his associate was on Licence.  Police checks were made and it was established that the partner of the caller’s associate was vulnerable.

A police officer was deployed to a local address where the associate of the caller resided due to “Concern Safety – Adult”.  

On arrival at the address, the police officer in attendance, talked with the man that opened the front door to the premises.  However, the officer did not check the wellbeing of the woman or establish whether there were any other occupants in the house at that time.  

On 30 July 2022, Staffordshire Police received a telephone call from a man reporting that his daughter had been stabbed multiple times at her home address.

On 30 July 2022, Staffordshire Police interviewed the victim where she disclosed that she had been stabbed multiple times by her partner, the day before the officer attended her home.  Some of the stab wounds were visible. 

During our investigation, we interviewed the police officer that attended the home address of the female.  The Control Room Police Staff that deployed the police officer.

Our investigation concluded in January 2023, but we waited for the associated proceedings to finish before sharing our findings. 

Our investigation concluded there was an indication a person serving for the police may have behaved in a manner that would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings or committed a criminal offence. 

A misconduct meeting was held in May 2023. The meeting proved two allegations against the officer: that they failed to check on the woman's welfare despite recorded evidence and that they failed to check the premises for the presence of other people.

The officer was given a written warning and the recommendation that all domestic violence and child safeguarding training is to be refreshed. 

The Chair noted that he believed the officer's conduct fell far below the standard. He also noted that the officer's denial was concerning and demonstrated he did not understand his safeguarding responsibilities and police powers. 

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.