We were left to f ind son’s body in river as police idled says dad
THE father of a 16-year-old boy who drowned in the Thames told of his fury yesterday after he had to get volunteer divers to find his son’s body as 15 police officers allegedly ‘sat about’ doing nothing.
Ellis Downes jumped into the river to cool off with friends at 9pm on Saturday but got into difficulty as he tried to swim back to the riverbank and slipped beneath the surface.
Thames Valley Police began a search but had to wait for a dive team from the Metropolitan Police because they do not have divers within the force. The family mounted their own search for the schoolboy, hiring a speedboat to trawl the waterway.
Ellis’ body was finally found on Monday night near Abingdon, Oxfordshire – within an hour of the family employing volunteer divers from search experts Specialist Group International (SGI). Last night, the group’s founder blasted Thames Valley Police after officers tried to prevent the volunteers entering the water. ‘This is the most disgusting police response I’ve ever seen in 20 years of policing and forensic searches,’ said Peter Faulding, who stepped in after his wife saw the Downes’ pleas for help on Facebook.
He was told that the involvement of an ‘unauthorised’ dive team could ‘hinder a planned and coordinated police search operation’. Around 15 police officers apparently stood by while Ellis’ devastated family were forced to carry the divers’ equipment to the water unaided.
The family were told that Thames Valley officers had carried out underwater searches but had been hampered by poor visibility and were awaiting a specialist dive team from the Metropolitan Police.
But Ellis’ father Darren issued an ultimatum, saying that if the volunteerin, themselves.the familydivers He were wouldsaid:not allowed‘ go I amin
disgusted. You think the police are going to do the best job possible but I guess nowadays that just doesn’t happen.’ Mr Faulding had been told he was not to go near the water as it was a crime scene – although the river was open to boaters. ‘I am fuming,’ said the dive expert. I’m a world-leading, experienced forensic searcher and I’m known to the police. I’ve never been so humiliated. It’s total incompetence at a senior level.’
Mr Faulding added: ‘The family just said, “We want you to dive.” They carried our boats, our equipment for us – the police stood by. There were probably 15 officers.’ Ellis’ body was found 48 hours after he went missing by an SGI diver who carried out an underwater fingertip search in pitch black water.
Mr Downes said: ‘Now we have Ellis’ body it’s the best of the worst situation. It may have been another few days with the police handling it.
‘What the volunteer diver team did was absolutely brilliant. The police were basically useless.’
Mr Downes, from Didcot, described how he had to go to the scene to reason with Thames Valley Police, who were blocking access to the river.
‘I had to go to the scene to basically get them to let the divers go in,’ he said. ‘The SGI divers were just sat about two or three hours when they could have been in the water doing it.
‘There were police there and they did nothing.
‘They didn’t help in the slightest. There was a complete lack of compassion. I said to the police if that was a policeman under the water they would have been there day and night to get them out. But when it’s my son I was told we have to fit around their schedule and get whatever they’ve got free.’
Thames Valley Police confirmed last night that it does not have a dive team but said officers had ‘co- ordinated the emergency services and volunteer response in the search for Ellis’.
Over the weekend it deployed its air support helicopter, while fire and rescue water search teams were searching with thermal imaging equipment. Environment Agency boats equipped with sonar were also involved and a specialist dive dog had been looking for the body.
A police spokesman added that Ellis’ death is being ‘treated as unexplained but is not believed to be suspicious’.
‘It’s total incompetence’