Pc quizzed over handling of domestic abuse case

AN Avon & Somerset police officer exposed a domestic abuse victim and her children to the risk of injury and distress by failing to arrest her ex after he broke into her home, a misconduct hearing was told.

Pc Tamsin Devlin let the man go but he returned the following morning and was later convicted of stalking, assault and criminal damage.

The officer’s handling of the incident was “so bad” that it amounts to gross misconduct, it is alleged.

The man, who had refused to accept the relationship was over, was hiding in a treehouse in his former partner’s garden when Pc Devlin and a junior colleague arrived following a 999 call from the mother of two to say he had entered her house through a window.

He gave the officers the slip as they tried talking to him, headed back into the property, burst into the first-floor bathroom where the woman had locked herself in, pushed his ex into the bathtub and seized the family dog by the neck before trying to leave with it, claiming it was his.

Pc Devlin admitted that she got it wrong and should have taken the man into custody.

Instead, she went against national and constabulary guidelines on domestic abuse incidents by not placing him under arrest, despite the man telling her he had no money, nowhere to go and would sleep on a nearby bench, the panel was told.

He went back to his former partner’s house around 7.15am the following day and was arrested by other officers before pleading guilty at a subsequent court hearing.

Taunton-based Pc Devlin, 41, admits misconduct but denies gross misconduct.

Barrister Mark Ley-Morgan, representing the force, told the police misconduct hearing at constabulary headquarters in Portishead on Monday that the woman, Ms A, explained to the two officers how the man had harassed her since they separated.

He said Pc Devlin asked her if she wanted to make a complaint and a statement about the night’s events before she added: “Or do you still just want him to go?”.

Mr Ley-Morgan said this went against College of Policing guidelines which stated: “The decision whether or not to arrest a suspect rests with the police officer, and officers should not ask victims whether they require an arrest to be made.”

Married mother-of-four Pc Devlin, who was tearful and visibly upset at the hearing, told the panel that she should have arrested Mr B, adding: “I would have done it differently. If I had arrested him, he would not have returned the next day.”

The officer said her intention had been to remove him from the area to give officers time to speak again to the victim and gather more evidence of harassment.

Pc Devlin said: “Ms A seemed concerned about him. I didn’t feel she was very distressed.”

She said the man had calmed down and was responding to questions in the police car after the incident.

The officer insisted she did discuss with her junior colleague that potential offences had taken place and that when she told the control room over the radio that none had been committed, that was a “genuine error” and that she had meant “no complaints” had been made.

Pc Devlin denied Mr Ley-Morgan’s accusation that she was telling “a pack of lies”.

The hearing continues.