Wife’s 999 nightmare
Her desperate call was ignored. Minutes later she was knifed to death
A POLICE 999 call handler ignored a woman’s desperate cries for help minutes before she was murdered by her jealous husband, an inquiry found. Victoria Bance, 37, shouted her address to a control room worker, but the call was not logged on police systems and no officers were dispatched. She was stabbed to death four minutes later. A court heard Robert Bance, 53, used a six-andahalf- inch commando knife to stab her 23 times, 14 times in the chest. He had erupted into a jealous rage after watching her speak to another man in a pub earlier in the night. It emerged yesterday that the call handler who failed to act was not disciplined. Instead, the individual was given ‘a six-month action plan’ and mentoring, said Devon and Cornwall Police. Bance murdered his wife at their home in Plymouth, Devon, early on October 9, 2016, and was jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years in March last year. After the case, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the IOPC, began an investigation amid concerns Mrs Bance could have been saved, had the police worker acted differently. The report found Mrs Bance dialled 999 during the terrifying incident but the call was cut off as her husband wrestled the phone from her. Phone operator BT called Devon and Cornwall Police minutes later to report an abandoned 999 call and the call handler rang Mrs Bance back. This time her husband picked up the phone and calmly said everything was ‘fine’, however his wife could be heard in the background desperately shouting out their address. The report said the call handler did not register the incident on police computer systems or even alert their supervisor. Bance rang back minutes later and said: ‘I have just killed my wife. I have stabbed her, she is dead.’ The father- of- eight later told police they had rowed after she had told him to leave their home. The couple had gone out for the evening but when he saw his wife talking to another man in a pub he stormed off, leaving her to get home with no phone and no money. During sentencing, judge Paul Darlow told Bance: ‘ This was a merciless and prolonged attack and the terror and pain she must have experienced in those minutes does not bear thinking about.’ The IOPC investigators found that ‘ there was sufficient evidence upon which a reasonable tribunal, properly directed, could find misconduct in respect of the call handler regarding the allegation that they did not create an incident log or refer the matter to a supervisor’. The report added: ‘ The investigator was also of the opinion that the call handler’s performance may be considered unsatisfactory in respect of their failure to recognise and react to the sound of a distressed voice.’ Devon and Cornwall Police admitted the call handler had ‘demonstrated an inability or failure to perform their role to a satisfactory standard or level’.