NOW WATCHDOG SAVAGES POLICE OVER DAD’S DEATH
Father found dead two days after family’s emergency calls
A FATHER was found dead two days after police failed to act on emergency calls from his worried family.
The force watchdog published a damning report yesterday blaming call-handling blunders for the delay in finding Barry Croal, 51.
three calls made in a day by Mr Croal’s concerned mother were not handled correctly.
She rang police on February 20, 2017, as she had not seen him for two days and had been unable to unlock his front door. But no officers were sent to investigate.
It was not until she phoned a fourth time on February 22 that police were sent to Mr Croal’s home in Fallin, Stirlingshire, and found him dead.
the report by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) is the latest to highlight call-handling failures at Police Scotland.
the most high-profile case was the M9 tragedy in 2015, when Lamara Bell was left dying for three days after a road crash because of alleged police blunders.
Last night, Scottish Labour justice spokesman Daniel Johnson said: ‘It is absolutely
essential that the management of Police Scotland urgently learn the crucial lessons of this report so other families do not suffer similar distress.
‘The Scottish public must have confidence that when they require the police, they will be met with the appropriate support, and the police must be adequately resourced to provide that support.’
In Mr Croal’s case, a doctor certified the cause of death as a gastrointestinal bleed. She could not give an estimated time of death, beyond saying that Mr Croal had been dead for more than two hours before she arrived.
The report could not determine whether Mr Croal’s life could have been saved if the matter had been
‘Frustrating and distressing’
handled effectively. The PIRC identified errors in the force’s callhandling and management.
Commissioner Kate Frame said: ‘Despite Barry Croal’s mother’s repeated efforts on February 20, 2017, in three calls to Police Scotland, to communicate her concerns about her son’s safety, she received little assistance in resolving those concerns until she phoned Police Scotland for a fourth time, two days later.
‘In her earlier calls, she made it clear to both police officers and a member of civilian staff that nobody had seen her son for a number of days and that she had been unable to get into his house because it appeared that the door had been locked with keys from the inside. Barry Croal’s mother experienced a variety of failures by three separate police personnel within a ten-minute period, which must have undoubtedly been very frustrating and ultimately a distressing experience.’
In her first two calls to 101 on February 20, Mr Croal’s mother spoke to custody inquiries, who told her to redial on 101 for a service adviser to report her son as a missing person. She did so and gave her details and then hung up, expecting someone to ring her back, which did not happen.
A statement issued on behalf of Mr Croal’s family said: ‘Barry was a father, son, partner and brother who is sorely missed. It’s been just over a year since his death and the circumstances surrounding it have made it difficult for us, as a family, to come to terms with.’
The PIRC recommended that police should make improvements to call-handling.
Assistant Chief Constable Wayne Mawson said: ‘Even after the passage of time, our thoughts remain with Barry’s family and friends. We note the recommendations within the PIRC report and acknowledge the fact that there were some shortcomings in relation to the Police Scotland response to inquiries to establish his wellbeing. We would like to offer our sincere apologies to Barry’s family and friends for that.’
He insisted that police had ‘recognised at an early stage these
‘There were some shortcomings’
shortcomings and promptly made significant changes and improvements’, adding: ‘Staff have also received additional briefing to recognise risk and vulnerability at the first point of contact.’
He said: ‘These improvements have addressed the three recommendations made by the PIRC and since the inception of this inquiry we have worked with the PIRC to address these findings to further improve our call-handling and custody management.’
Last month, the PIRC found police spent only five minutes searching a garage in Bo’ness, West Lothian, where the body of Arnold Mouat, 64, lay for a month before it was found by his family in the building’s roof space on August 5, 2017.
In another case, officers took a week to respond to concerns about the welfare of Andrew Bow, 37, who was found dead in his Edinburgh home in March 2016.
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘This is yet another damning report which relates to the call-handling procedure at Police Scotland.
‘The SNP insisted on centralising this service and said it would not impact on quality or safety. A series of regrettable incidents has proven this not to be the case.’
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