Woman found dead at home 12 hours after police dispatched

A woman was found dead in her home 12 hours after police first went to the property to investigate her whereabouts, the police watchdog has found.

Officers first went to the Ayrshire house on the afternoon of December 28 last year following a report of concern for the 38-year-old, but they could not establish whether anyone was at home.

The Police Investigation & Review Commissioner (Pirc) report said neighbours told the officers they had heard someone moving around inside the previous evening, which led them to assume she was alive and inside.

However when night-shift officers went to the property in the early hours of December 29, they looked through a gap in the blinds next to the front door and saw the upper body of a woman on the floor behind the front door.

They forced entry to the house and found the woman to be unresponsive. She was pronounced dead by a paramedic a short time later.

The Pirc report found a missing person report should have been created after the officers who first attended could not trace her, and that should have resulted in a home search.

However the watchdog found it was unlikely the death could have been prevented if officers had forced entry to the property earlier. It also said the officers who initially attended conducted “appropriate inquiries to locate the woman”.

Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable John Hawkins said: “This was a tragic death and our thoughts remain with the woman’s family and friends.

“As noted by the Pirc, we have implemented the commissioner’s recommendations.”