Police ‘did not fail murder victim’

A POLICE watchdog has found no evidence of wrongdoing by South Yorkshire Police after a man spoke to officers, threatening to harm someone he later murdered.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) carried out an investigation after it emerged that murder victim Craig Preston had been threatened by one of his killers before he was battered to death in August 2016.

The 34-year-old from Wath, near Rotherham, was killed by his expartner, Leonie Mason, 24, and her partner Shiraz Bashir, 42, both of Holme Park Court, Huddersfield. They were found guilty of murder, with Bashir jailed for 22 years and Mason for 19 years.

Three teenage boys recruited to help carry out the killing were found guilty of manslaughter.

Detectives who investigated the death established that Bashir and Mr Preston had both reported each other to police for making threats shortly before the killing.

The police watchdog looked into how the threats were dealt with and yesterday announced that the police response at that time had been “appropriate”.

In a report of its findings, the IOPC said Bashir contacted South Yorkshire Police on August 6, 7, 13 and 15 to report threats by Mr Preston and stating that he planned to “take matters into his own hands if no action was taken”.

He was twice advised by a police constable and once by a detective sergeant not to contact Mr Preston. Mr Preston was later arrested and released without charge after saying Bashir had assaulted and threatened him.

IOPC regional director Miranda Biddle said: “We have a very clear role in this case, to establish the facts – that there was evidence to suggest threats were made by both men and to assess the police response.

“In this case we found the South Yorkshire Police’s actions, in general, were appropriate and the officers involved had no case to answer.”