Police forced to hand over case after failing with THREE probes
A NEW police force will launch a fresh investigation into Gosport GP Dr Jane Barton, it was announced last night.
Hampshire Police finally admitted that after three disastrous inquiries it would be best to hand over the case.
Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney said the force ‘cannot hide’ from the ‘considerable damage to confidence’ caused by the independent report.
She said: ‘I have listened to the reported views of the families and those who represent them. Having taken time to carefully consider the matter, I have made the decision that Hampshire Constabulary must take a step back.
‘I certainly would never want to absolve my force of its responsibilities.
‘But we cannot hide from the fact that the legacy of what has happened has caused considerable damage to confidence in the agencies involved, including my own. In its report, the panel has given a clear view on the quality of the investigations by police and other agencies.
‘The force has always acknowledged that the first two police investigations were not of a high quality. The report makes clear a view from the panel that the third did not look widely enough.’
The independent inquiry laid bare the stumbling course trod by police over 12 years after the first complaint was made in September 1998. For the first time, it revealed how the secrecy-obsessed force failed at almost every turn to realise the danger patients faced.
Within 11 days the junior officer in charge of the first inquiry dismissed grieving relatives as troublemakers in an internal memo. The following two inquiries, despite involving increasingly senior officers as the investigation sprawled out, were riven with failures.
Detectives trusted senior medical figures who could have been suspects and deferred to the hospital authorities instead of victims. And they failed to share key information about other suspicious deaths with others, including a coroner responsible for inquests. Eventually, amid incredible internal infighting, one senior officer effectively accused another of corruption for failing to pursue justice.
In a statement issued within hours of the report’s publication, Hampshire Police attempted to shift the blame to prosecutors, pointing out they chose not to bring charges. But yesterday, as the full scale of public anger became clear, Mrs Pinkney accepted her force was to blame.
She said: ‘I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for our part in the distress caused to families for so many years.
‘With new material being available to the panel, it is important that whichever force takes the lead has the right access to all of the information.
‘I have already instructed my force to prepare plans so that this can be handed over to a different lead force and I am also progressing discussions with national partners in this respect.’