Force sorry over attack investigation

POLICE: South Yorkshire Police has apologised for “investigative failings” over a brutal gang attack on a vulnerable victim.

The apology over the investigation was received by his mother just hours after The Yorkshire Post published evidence she had compiled that highlighted a series of failings in the handling of the case.

SOUTH YORKSHIRE Police has apologised for “investigative failings” over a brutal gang attack in which a vulnerable victim was dragged from the street, beaten, kicked, hit with a brick and robbed.

The apology over the investigation into an unprovoked attack on Lawrence Vincent in Doncaster in January 2017 was received by his mother Diane Timms just hours after The Yorkshire Post published evidence she had compiled that highlighted a series of failings in the handling of the case. These included officers failing to order forensic analysis of a footwear impression on clothing Mr Vincent had been wearing when he was attacked and a failure to seize the mobile phones of suspects despite a social media image of two individuals wearing hoods and captioned ‘No face, no case’ being posted online shortly after the incident.

The letter sent to Ms Timms confirmed the investigating officer in the case, who was a police constable, has now been placed on a mentoring programme and action plan “to ensure these failings do not happen again”.

The letter said the officer should have checked the clothing for potential forensic evidence and “a mobile phone strategy should have formed part of the investigation and subsequently searches made in relation to mobile devices”.

South Yorkshire Police said last year that six teenage boys had been interviewed in connection with the case but never told the family how many arrests had been made. The letter confirmed only two of the six were ever arrested – one because they refused to attend an interview.

Mr Vincent’s mother had previously raised concerns about the number of house-to-house enquiries which had been carried out and police initially told her that the officer had visited 13 local properties.

However, when Ms Timms went to the same properties herself, she said only one resident said they had been visited by the police, with nine saying they had not been visited at all and no answer at the three remaining properties.

The new response by the detective inspector overseeing the complaint said: “Having sought clarity from the investigating officer, it appears that during the initial house-to-house enquiries, the investigator did not manage to speak to all residents, due to no reply. However, what I have been unable to clarify is if and when the investigating officer re-attended to finalise these enquiries.

“As there is no written record of this, the investigator cannot provide me details of when this took place and to what extent.”

Ms Timms said: “I remember going out house to house in the pouring rain. I knocked on every single door and some of the people didn’t even know anything about Lawrence’s case.”

The police letter to Ms Timms added: “On behalf of South Yorkshire Police, I would like to offer our apologies to Lawrence, you and your family. We acknowledge that certain aspects of this investigation should have been dealt with differently.

“In my opinion, specific forensic and telecoms strategy should have been identified in the early stages of the investigation.

“I cannot say whether the strategies would have identified further evidence or not, however the enquiries should have been progressed accordingly.”

I don’t want another family having to go through what we have.

Diane Timms, mother of attack victim Lawrence Vincent.