Ombudsman: Police death chase should have been halted

A police chase in the North that ended when a teenager drowned while trapped under a patrol car should have been called off, an Ombudsman’s Office inquiry claimed today.

Raymond Robinson, 19, died in a shallow water stream when the car ended up on top of him.

He jumped out of his Seat Toledo, which had earlier been in collision with the police vehicle, and ran across grass at Whiteabbey in an area known as The Glen.

Officers continued to follow him, and tragedy struck after the police car slid down a steep 12 to 15-foot bank and into the Threemilewater, a report revealed. Visibility was poor at the time.

At one stage officers desperately tried to revive him with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but he died at the scene.

The Police Ombudsman’s investigation into the fatality in April 2004 found no evidence of misconduct by any of the officers involved, but strongly criticised police procedures and training for vehicle pursuits.

Mrs Nuala O’Loan claimed: “It is my conclusion that the pursuit should have been called off before the police car became involved in following the car off-road.”

The man’s family also expressed concern and said they were gravely worried about the police handling of the situation. They claimed he was killed. A statement said: “We are now going to consider our next course of action.”

Officers tried to stop Mr Robinson after receiving reports that his vehicle was being driven erratically. Mr Robinson was later found to be at twice the drink driving limit and there were traces of solvents and cannabis in his blood.

The Director of Public Prosecutions directed no prosecution of the officers involved but Mrs O’Loan said she was concerned that neither of the two officers in the car informed the regional control room of the chase.

“Although the entire pursuit lasted less than two minutes, opportunities to inform the control room of its nature were missed, denying the control room an opportunity to order that it be abandoned,” she said.

She added that police pursuit policy was unclear about officers seeking authorisation and found the individuals involved hadn’t been trained for a chase. She concluded that it would be inappropriate to discipline the officers because they hadn’t received adequate guidance.

Her recommendations included:

:: A new pursuit policy based on guide lines developed by the Association of Chief Police Officers, should be developed and applied across the North;

:: Police control rooms should play a greater role in managing and controlling pursuits;

:: Specialist commentary training (with audio link to control room) should be an essential part of police driver training;

:: Police drivers should be given guidance about the need for control-room authorisation for pursuits.

A Police Service of Northern Ireland spokesman said: “The police service will study the contents of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland’s report. We welcome the Ombudsman’s findings that no officer is guilty of misconduct."