Met referred to watchdog over tragic student
SCOTLAND Yard has been referred to the police watchdog over its handling of the disappearance of tragic student Richard Okorogheye.
The move came as his heartbroken mother said she desperately wanted answers to how 19-year- old Richard lost his life.
The force made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct after the student’s body was found in a pond in Essex, two weeks after he was reported missing.
The watchdog said it was exploring whether any ‘future involvement is required’.
His mother yesterday described how her life had been ‘ripped apart’ after the body found in Epping Forest was formally identified as her son.
‘At this moment of time I just want answers as how my son lost his life. I want answers. I desperately need closure,’ said nurse Evidence Joel, 39.
‘I am completely hollow and devastated and empty. Life is already empty, there’s like a cloud just hovering around, it took the sun away from me,’ she told Sky News. ‘What am I going to look forward to? What is there to look forward to again?’
Richard, who had sickle cell disease and had only been going out for regular blood transfusions during the pandemic, left his family home in Ladbroke Grove, west London, on March 22 and was reported missing two days later. His body was found in a pond on April 5 and formally identified on Wednesday.
The Oxford Brookes University business and IT undergraduate’s death is being treated as unexplained and police do not at this stage believe anyone else was involved.
A post mortem examination found no evidence of physical trauma or assault and further tests are being carried out to establish the cause of his death.
Mrs Joel had said her son was struggling with remote learning, and had left his wallet and bus pass at home.
He had taken a taxi to Loughton, Essex, and was last seen walking towards Epping Forest at 12.39am on March 23, police said.
Mrs Joel said her son had no reason to travel to Essex. ‘It’s too far for Richard to walk into the darkness alone,’ she said. ‘How did he get there? We don’t know. I feel something happened there.
‘The forest is massive and scary, it’s a place that one wouldn’t wish to go at night. It was not a very comfortable place to be.’
Mrs Joel has criticised the police’s initial response to his disappearance, and told reporters that when she made the first missing persons report to police they asked ‘if you can’t find your son, how do you expect us to?’.
She had said she was initially told that police did not have the resources to check CCTV around her home and did not take the disappearance seriously until Richard had been missing for six days.
Police said a referral has been made to the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards and to the IOPC ‘ as a matter of routine’, because the student had been reported missing before his body was found. An IOPC spokesman said: ‘We will be assessing whether any possible future IOPC involvement is required. Our thoughts are with Richard’s family.’
Mrs Joel said a number of fake online fundraising pages had been set up in her son’s name. The family had not created one but planned to do so, she added.
‘How did he get there?’