Recommendation - South Wales Police, October 2022
We identified organisational learning from a death or serious injury report where a man was arrested for sexual assault of a victim under the age of 13. Following bail, the man took his own life.
IOPC reference
Recommendations
The IOPC recommends that South Wales Police should amend their procedures to ensure a risk assessment is always conducted for suspects of child sexual abuse offences when answering bail. This would reflect operational advice provided by the College of Policing in the document, 'Managing the risk of suicide for persons under investigation for online child sexual abuse and exploitation', where specific “trigger events”, such as answering bail, are listed.
This follows an IOPC review of a Death and Serious Injury (DSI) local investigation where a male under investigation for child sexual abuse offences took his own life one week after answering bail. A risk assessment was not conducted when he attended the custody suite.
South Wales Police does not have a policy or procedure in place for risk assessments to be required when suspected child sexual abuse offenders answer bail; only if concerns are recognised is any further action taken in this regard. The implementation of a force policy would ensure consistency and may help to improve suspect (and victim) welfare in the future.
Do you accept the recommendation?
Yes
Accepted action:
Actions already completed
The South Wales Police Organisational Learning Co-ordinator (shared role between PSD and Learning and Development) has been requested to record and monitor this as an item of organisational learning on our systemsWe have already put in place mandatory risk assessments for anyone being interviewed as a Voluntary Attendee (VA) for any offence including for sexual / child sexual offences. This risk assessment must be completed prior to the VA process being commenced. This is recorded on our Niche system using an OEL template as guidance. (Attached communication article refers - see doc on response on Perito reference).Guidance was issued via the Force Intranet regarding trigger point risk assessments (Attached for your reference - see doc on response on Perito reference). This outlines the need for a risk assessment to be carried out and added to the Niche OEL at certain “trigger points” during an investigation such as Bail, Bail extension, serving of paperwork or even investigation updates. This should be taken into consideration with any vulnerability.SWP comply with the Lucy Faithful protocol at point of initial bail
Actions ongoing
Custody training are liaising with PPU to understand any gaps in risk assessments requirements not only for those child sexual abuse offences, but also for detainees with any vulnerabilities at point of bail, answering bail and re bail and for those dealt with by post, in order to achieve consistency in terms of risk assessments. They are also working to identify the most appropriate place for the risk assessment to be conducted with either custody or the investigator.A Custody Chief Inspector is preparing a number of proposals for how this risk assessment may be effectively introduced into working practices.With the introduction of the new Bail guidance due in October 2022, communications are being issued around the need to contact Victims, witnesses & suspects when RUI or Bail takes place. We will also consider including a risk assessment for suspects at this contact.